SELF -SURVEYS BY 
COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIE: 

WILLIAM H. ALLEN 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIE 




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EDUCATIONAL SURVEY SERIES 



Self-Surveys by 
Colleges and Universities 



EDUCATIONAL STTRVEY SERIES 

Self-Surveys by 
Colleges and Universities 

By WILLIAM H^ ALLEN, Ph.D. 

DIRECTOR OF THB INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC 
SERVICE, NEW YORK CITY 

With a Referendum to 
College and University Presidents 




YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

1917 



WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE 
Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson 

YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YORK 

2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 



Publishers of the following professional works: 
School Efficiency Series, edited by Paul H. 
Hanus, complete in thirteen volumes; Educational 
Survey Series, three volumes already issued and 
others projected; School Efficiency Monographs, 
six numbers now ready, others in active preparation 






NOV -3 1917 



ESS: ASSCU — I 



^3. Oft 



Copyright, 1917, by World Book Company 
All rights reserved 



FOREWORD 

TO make it easier for American democracy to under- 
stand, and to shape for democracy's ends, the higher 
education upon which it spends a half -billion dollars yearly, 
is one purpose of this book. 

It consists of first-aid tests that will help a trustee, presi- 
dent, professor, parent, or student act as business doctor or 
efficiency engineer to his own college, — each with respect 
to his own responsibility. 

" Self -surveys " is used in the title to express the con- 
viction that the study of higher education which is most 
needed today is study by colleges themselves of themselves 
and by each college of itself. 

While addressed to those who are officially responsible 
for 600 colleges and universities attended by nearly 400,000 
students, it also aims to illustrate the method that must be 
applied by students of education, government, and eco- 
nomics if they are to ask and answer dividend-paying ques- 
tions. 

Laymen are included in our audience because there is 
only a negligible fraction of our population with whom col- 
lege is not a vital influence. Either we have been to col- 
lege and are grateful or we have not been and are disap- 
pointed or we are thankful for having escaped. Where is 
the teacher who would not have liked a college course? 
Where is the tenement mother or farm father who doesn't 
have daydreams about sons and daughters going to college ? 

Colleges can helpfully and constructively study college 
problems only by applying to themselves the principles of 
scientific analysis and observation that higher education 
applies to the rest of the universe. General questions must 
be broken into their elements and each part answered specif- 
ically for each individual activity or person concerned. 

The experience of private business is repeating itself in 
the college world. Every college, and every department 
within a college, is coming to see that it must continuously 
and progressively study itself. 



vi Foreword 

No longer does it suffice to point to the college halo. 
Keener and keener is competition growing from other col- 
leges and other activities. Donors and taxpayers are ask- 
ing for concrete proof of the faith that is in our colleges. 
Students about to invest time, money, and opportunity are 
beginning to apply principles of scientific management in 
the selection of their colleges and their courses. 

The pay-as-it-goes cumulative and administrative self- 
survey is coming to be an everyday necessity of every 
college. 

Among subjects which it is hoped will help trustees and 
students answer questions that are being widely asked are 
these: education scapegoats; student cost of living; keep- 
ing in touch with alumni; citizenship courses; learning by 
doing; English as taught and practiced; analyzing student 
capacity; lecture and over-lecture; personality of instructor; 
observation of classroom instruction; method of selecting 
instructors ; more experienced teachers for less experienced 
students; segregation of sexes; national conventions for 
trustees; academic vacations; methods of appealing and 
publicity ; the teaching load ; effects of research upon teach- 
ing efficiency; use and non-use of college space; how presi- 
dent and faculty deal with one another; and the effect of 
foundations upon colleges and universities. 

One feature is new to bookmaking in the educational 
field; namely, questions are frequently followed by Y 
(Yes)... AT (No)... .^ (Uncertain, will investigate) .. . 
These blanks and occasional blank pages for memoranda 
are left in the hope that readers will be tempted to take out 
their pencils and mark facts and questions for their own 
colleges and classes. Schools of education will find labora- 
tory material here in methods of breaking general ques- 
tions into their elements and of disclosing the futility of 
averages. 

For asking so many questions rather than writing 
theories no apology is made. To raise questions is the pur- 
pose of this handbook. No one can know the answers 
until self -surveys are made. It is with studying education 



Foreword vii 

as with travel : one finds what one takes ; one sees only as 
one asks. Those who ask general questions about colleges 
will obtain general answers. Only by asking specific ques- 
tions can self -surveyors obtain answers that will help their 
college take Tomorrow's first steps. 

Little good can come from asking colleges to place their 
standards higher. What colleges need most is to fill up 
the gaps between what they have already undertaken and 
what they are getting done. 

The efficient college is not the institution described by 
the Association of American Colleges as having at least 500 
students, 50 teachers, $167,000 a year to spend, a plant 
worth $925,000, an endowment of $2,250,000, and total 
assets of $3,200,000. On the contrary, the efficient college 
is a place that may or may not — yet — have an endow- 
ment and may or may not — yet — have 500 or 5000 stu- 
dents, but that does have — already — purpose, personnel, 
and procedure for discovering and developing student per- 
sonality and student capacity. There can be no efficient 
college where Tomorrow is like Today — where college 
managers fail to ask specific, meaningful questions about 
their reach and their grasp. 

Readers who dislike thinking for themselves may find 
this book uncomfortable. Those who enjoy analyzing 
their own observations and experiences will no doubt think 
of many incidents and questions that would have increased 
the book's value. Criticism and suggestion are invited, 
and when received will be circulated. 

In fiv^ ways college officers and faculties have helped 
make this handbook: (i) Many of the questions and 
suggestions were contributed as the result of a referendum 
of chapter headings to 200 college presidents and professors 
of education; (2) photographs, records, and concrete in- 
stances have been furnished partly for this book, partly for 
Public Service bulletins, and partly by 54 colleges toward 
Record Aids in College Management; (3) basic questions 
are drawn from collaboration with faculty officers when 
the survey of Wisconsin was made and from studies by 



viii Foreword 

the faculties of Oberlin and the University of Chicago; 
(4) piibHc statements by leading educators have been liber- 
ally used, including criticisms of colleges by college men in 
books and magazines since 19 10; (5) several criticisms 
have come from educators who generously read different 
chapters and permitted use of their suggestions. 

Special indebtedness is acknowledged to Presidents Frank 
L. McVey, University of North Dakota, Edward K. Gra- 
ham, University of North Carolina, Donald J. Cowling, 
Carleton College, Raymond M. Hughes, Miami University, 
Silas Evans, Ripon College ; Deans Elmer E. Jones, North- 
western University's College of Education, and James E. 
Hagerty, College of Commerce and Journalism, Ohio State 
University; Professors A. W. Rankin, University of 
Minnesota, R. B. Way, Beloit College, and A. Duncan 
Yocum, University of Pennsylvania. 

Russian universities furnished leaders for the Russian 
revolution and the first head of the Russian republic. 
America's pilot through the most troublesome waters that 
our ship of state has encountered is a former university 
professor and lifelong teacher. Revolution and war bring 
to the surface the patriotism of our college world. Equally 
important is the obligation of our colleges to teach and live 
the patriotism and procedure of peace. The great leaders 
for whom education is crying are those who will show how 
to democratize our doing as well as our wishing. 

The basis for cooperation is common knowledge. The 
starting point for common knowledge is common ques- 
tioning. 

William. Hi. Allen 
New York City 

June 15, 1917 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

I. The Survey Movement in Higher Education 

1. Every College to be Surveyed , . . . i 

2. Higher Education Surveys under Way 2 

3. Who Shall Make Surveys? 4 

4. Every Official Report a Survey 8 

5. Self-Surveys — Current and Special 10 

6. Inside Reasons for Surveys by Insiders 12 

7. Reasons for Surveys by Outsiders 14 

8. What Should Special Surveys Report? 16 

II. Procedure for a Cooperative College Survey 

9. Twelve Steps for a Cooperative Survey 19 

10. Securing Faculty Cooperation 28 

11. Report "High Spots" and "Low Spots" Separately ... 32 

12. The Limits of Comparative Studies 34 

13. Survey Technique 2>J 

14. Educational Scapegoats 40 

III. Relation of Trustees to President and Faculty 

15. Self-Survey by Trustees 42 

16. National Conventions for Trustees 44 

17. College Organization 46 

18. Written Agreements with Faculty 47 

19. By-laws and Laws 52 

20. Investigations for Trustees 54 

21. Visitation by Alumni and Other Visitors 57 

22. Granting of Honorary Degrees 62 

2Z. Tenure of Office ^T) 

24. Provision for Pensioning Professors 66 

25. Academic Vacations tej 

26. Outside Audit of Operation Reports 70 

27. Beauty Making and Building 72 

28. Academic Freedom 73 

29. Endowments, State Aids, and Salary Levels 75 

IV. Executive and Business Efficiency 

30. Efficiency of Administration 79 

31. Efficiency of College Executives 81 

ix 



X Contents 

PAGE 

32. President's Working Year as President 87 

S3. First Faculty Meeting Each Year 89 

34. President's Report — Opportunity and Index 91 

35. Method oi Appealing and Publicity 96 

36. Analyzing College Constituency 100 

37. Method of Meeting Criticism 102 

38. Statistical Organization 103 

39. Elimination of Students 104 

40. The Business Manager 106 

41. Division of Reference and Research . .111 

42. The College Budget 118 

43. Record Forms Are Educational Indexes 124 

44. Character of Financial Reports 129 

45. Bookkeeping Methods .132 

46. Purchasing Methods 134 

47. Unit Costs of Other than Instructional Service 135 

48. Revolving Funds 136 

49. Use and Non-Use of College Space 138 

50. The Working Week 144 

51. Teaching Load of Instructors 150 

52. Distribution of Non-Teaching Load 153 

53. Record of Classes i53 

54. Small Classes i55 

55. Control of Faculty Research 156 

56. Cost of Faculty Research 158 

V. Faculty Government 

57. Commission Government for Faculties 162 

58. How President and Faculty Deal with One Another . . . 163 

59. Is Faculty Government Democratic? 166 

6c. Faculty Meetings, Committee Assignments, Minutes . . . 167 

61. Faculty Investigations and Reports 171 

62. Faculty Salaries and Tenure 172 

63. Faculty Supervision of Research and Graduate Work , . . 177 

64. Departmental Meetings and Conferences 181 

65. Interdepartmental Conferences 182 

66. Educational Conventions 183 

VI. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS 

67. Student Cost of Living, Room and Board 185 

68. Cost of High Living 192 

69. The Out-of-State Student 193 



Contents xi 

PAGE 

70. Student Assemblies 194 

71. Student Self-Government 196 

72. Group Relations of Students 197 

23. Supervision of Student Activities 198 

74. Health Protection and Hygiene Instruction 201 

75. Vocational Guidance and Supervised Study 206 

76. Employment Bureau 208 

77. Keeping in Touch with Alumni 215 

VII. Course of Study 

78. The College Catalog 218 

79. Courses of Study 222 

80. Correlation of Subjects 224 

81. Cooperative or In-and-Out Method 228 

82. Citizenship Courses . 229 

83. Cultural vs. Practical Courses 232 

84. Fitting Courses to Local Needs 236 

85. Holding Power of Subjects, Compulsory and Elective . . 237 

86. Graduate Work Offered 240 

87. Professional Courses . 241 

88. The College Library 244 

89. Testing Efficiency of Individual Courses 246 

90. Admission Requirements 247 

VIII. Instructional Efficiency 

91. Method of Selecting Instructors 251 

92. Observation of Classroom Instruction 253 

93. Supervision of Instruction ,....' 262 

94. Supervision of Classroom Instruction 264 

95. The Student Adviser 266 

96. How Classroom Instruction Was Photographed by the Uni- 

versity of Wisconsin Survey 270 

97. Personality of Instructor 274 

98. Personality Portraits 276 

99. Desirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. David E. Berg 

when Observing 72 University Instructors 279 

100. Undesirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. Berg . . . 279 

loi. Use of Minimum Essentials 280 

102. Analyzing Student Capacity and Need 283 

103. Graduate Work 285 

104. Learning via Doing 293 

105. English as Taught and Practiced . 297 



xii Contents 

PAGE 

io6. Status of Foreign Languages 301 

107. Methods of Grading Students' Work 309 

108. Students' Written Work 312 

109. Lecture and Over-Lecture 316 

no. Specialization and Over- Specialization 318 

111. The Point System of Improving Scholarship ...... 318 

112. Segregation of Sexes in Certain Courses 320 

113. The Junior College . 321 

114. Experienced Teachers for Less Experienced Students . . . 324 

115. Effects of Research upon Teaching Efficiency 325 

IX. Relation with College Communities 

116. The Home Town 334 

117. Accrediting Secondary Schools 340 

118. Relations to Secondary Schools . 342 

iig. Extension Work 345 

120. Municipal Universities 348 

121. Colleges and Central Boards of Education 352 

122. The Effect of Foundations upon Colleges . 354 

Appendix : 

Exhibit I. Constructive Program for Foundations . . . 360 

Exhibit IL Faculty Questionnaire, University of Wisconsin 
Survey 362 

Exhibit IIL Alumni Questionnaire, University of Wisconsin 
Survey 375 

Exhibit IV, Fitting State University Service to State Needs 
— Illustrations from the University of Minnesota . . . 382 

Index 385 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Colleges and teacher-training schools in the United 

States to be self-surveyed Frontispiece'^ 

OPPOSITE PAGK 

Self-surveys provide field training for students . . . 16"^ 

A municipal exhibit. Dayton Bureau of Research 
Teaching taxpayers to test results. Dayton 

Surveying would vitalize many subjects 32^ 

Field work in biology and physiography. University of North 
Dakota 

Shovi^ graphically whence students come 56^ 

University of Wisconsin Survey Report 

Vacation field work is vacation too 70*^ 

Learning to garden by gardening. University of California 
Learning to survey by surveying. California 

To compare college results will also train students . . 80' 
Two illustrations from a city exhibit at Jackson, Michigan 

Proof of vital work is the best publicity 96*^ 

Eight weeks in real library work. Wisconsin Library School 
Learning to serve by serving. Wisconsin Library School 

Short courses for farmers are good investments . . .116" 

Serving those who pay the bills. University of Minnesota 
Learning to test corn by testing corn. Minnesota 

In-and-out plan reduces capital costs 120 ^ 

Future engineers build bridges. University of Cincinnati 
Students of engineering help work on section gangs. Cincin- 
nati 



Photographs help inform and interest trustees . . . 124 

Not yet used for instruction. Carleton College 
An important laboratory. Berea College 

Educational bookkeeping needs illustrations .... 134/ 

Reed College 

xiii 



/ 



xiv List of Illustrations 

• ^ ^ OPPOSITE PAGE 

High cost of living means fewer students 182 ^ 

Self-support and instruction. Berea College 
Cooperation, economy, instruction. Berea 

Correlating work with good times 200^ 

Pageant of the seasons. Pennsylvania State College 
Folk dancing. Pennsylvania State 
Saturday excursion. Pennsylvania State 

Keeping in touch with alumni by helping alumni grow . 216'^ 

Practicing physicians, summer class in pediatrics at Greensboro. 
University of North Carolina 

What learning by doing does the catalog mention? . . 222^ 

Fitting studies to state needs. University of California 
Made and installed by students. California 

The " in-and-out " method is sadly needed in graduate 

work 228^^ 

Electrical test work and metallurgical laboratory work by en- 
gineering students. University of Cincinnati 
Truck repairing for city traction company. Cincinnati 

Field training for public service via preparing exhibits 236*^ 

Teaching taxpayers about city government's results by ocular 
demonstration. Dayton Bureau of Research 

Professional educators also learn best by doing . . . 284*^ 
Comparative tables for citizens. Dayton Bureau of Research 

Rivaling the disciplinary value of compulsory languages 304*^' 

Leadership qualities tested. Carleton College 
Learning via serving. Carleton 
Making hygiene attractive. Carleton 

Coeducation permits sex segregation too 320*-^ 

Poultry husbandry. University of California ^ 

Sex segregation via interest segregation. California 

Learning via serving college and town 336 "^ 

Which is better for higher education, road making or road 

using with roadsters? Berea College 
Student-built chapel. Berea 



List of Illustrations xv 

OPPOSITE PAOB 

Extension work may be made to vitalize both college and 

community 344^ 

Such audiences mean future support and students. Reed Col- 
lege 

Municipal university uses factories 352 v 

One way to find what Dean Schneider calls " the yellow streak " 
in future engineers. " Coop " students in real foundries and 
shops. University of Cincinnati 

Do alumni advise " practical " courses ? 378*^ 

Two classes of teachers at Pennsylvania State College, learning 
how to teach agriculture by doing agriculture 



SELF-SURVEYS BY COLLEGES AND 
UNIVERSITIES 



THE SURVEY MOVEMENT IN HIGHER 
EDUCATION 

I. Every College to he Surveyed 

WHEN the history of education in the twentieth century 
is written, the two ideas of self-examination and effi- 
ciency will receive respectful and continuous mention. 

Whatever may be found to be the determining factors in 
bringing about nation-wide surveys and self -surveys of edu- 
cation, three striking facts will stand out : early in the twen- 
tieth century contentment gave way to question; self-assur- 
ance gave way to self -analysis; and submission to the past 
gave way to concern for the future. 

Nor is this renaissance among educational executives con- 
fined to publicly supported schools. On the contrary, richly 
endowed universities and desperately needy private schools 
are vying with tax-supported state and city schools in ask- 
ing: "What are we doing? What are we failing to do? 
What are we failing to undertake that the twentieth cen- 
tury needs to have done ? " 

The faculty of Chicago Normal College is conducting a 
self-survey, as the eight normal schools of Wisconsin re- 
cently cooperated with the state survey director in studying 
every phase of normal-school work and as the presidents of 
tax-supported institutions in Ohio earlier cooperated in 
studying their efficiency. Ohio State University is by order 
of trustees self -surveying itself through deans and faculty. 
Columbia has a committee of trustees and faculty on " con- 
ditions of education and administration." From the Uni- 
versity of Illinois, Professor W. C. Bagley writes : 



2 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

" The department of education is now cooperating with one 
of the colleges and with a large department in each of two 
other colleges in a thoroughgoing study of the problem of col- 
lege teaching. Classes are being visited and inspected, and re- 
ports are discussed with departmental groups. All of this ac- 
tivity originated with the departments and colleges themselves." 

The alumni of a distinguished secondary school are sur- 
veying its program, equipment, procedure, and results. 
Several endowed secondary schools are studying one an- 
other's methods of discovering and developing each pupil's 
personality and capacities. The president of an unendowed 
private school with elementary and professional courses pays 
for a special survey of personality, methods, and results of 
instructors, including his own method of supervising and de- 
veloping teachers. 

City superintendents of public-school systems in Houston, 
Texas; Montpelier, Vermont; Jamestown, New York; Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, and innumerable other places are conducting 
auto-surveys. State departments of education in Wis- 
consin, Connecticut, Alabama, Washington, and many other 
states are surveying county and city schools. 

Difficulties at several universities between faculties or indi- 
vidual instructors and trustees have led to surveys and re- 
ports of facts by the Association of American Professors. 

So rapidly has developed the demand for specific, helpful 
information regarding college needs and college opportu- 
nities that it is safe to prophesy that within ten years prac- 
tically every one of America's 600 colleges and universities 
will be surveyed. 

The question is no longer shall we or shall we not have 
our college surveyed, but how thoroughly, how helpfully, 
and how continuously shall our college be surveyed. 

2. Higher Education Surveys under Way 

Not counting the routine or special studies that are being 
made by presidents, deans, and faculties, there was a notable 
number of college surveys under way in 19 16. By legisla- 
lative order universities and other higher institutions of 



College Surveys under Way 3 

learning were being surveyed in Washington, Colorado, and 
Maryland. By special arrangement the University of Min- 
nesota, on its own initiative, had its business operations sur- 
veyed by the Minneapolis Committee of Municipal Research. 
Wisconsin's central board of education continued surveys of 
that state's university and nine normal schools. 

Indiana and Missouri normal schools were studied and 
compared by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement 
of Teaching, which completed its nation-wide study of in- 
struction in engineering and in law. 

Miami University's president and faculty began a self- 
survey in 1916. The Ohio State University has been sur- 
veying itself by order of the trustees. For Dartmouth's 
president an extensive field-drawn comparison of Dart- 
mouth's practices with the practices of twenty-three other 
institutions was made by Professor H. E. Burton. 

Harvard's department of economics requested the depart- 
ment of education to investigate undergraduate instruction 
in economics with a view to its improvement. This request 
is cited by President Lowell in his annual report as addi- 
tional evidence "of the open mind, the desire to improve, 
the willingness to change its methods and to deal with its 
instruction as a systematic whole which has been conspicu- 
ous in the case of the department of economics." 

To the above add the special surveys completed and re- 
ported upon of state universities in Oregon, Iowa, and Wis- 
consin ; surveys completed but not yet reported upon for all 
higher institutions in North Dakota ; and the current surveys 
by central boards of education in Idaho, Kansas, and other 
states. Obviously a substantial beginning has been made 
in surveys of tax-supported colleges and universities. 

How generally private colleges have employed outside 
analysts or have begun auto-surveys has not been compiled. 
Annual reports and catalogs, however, show a nation-wide 
attempt to see whether existing progress and methods are 
fitting the needs of today and tomorrow. The chief coop^ 
erative effort of colleges is that of the Association of Amer- 
ican Colleges, which at its Chicago meeting in January, 



4 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

191 6, received a preliminary report of the committee ap- 
pointed to formulate the minimum essentials of The Effi- 
cient College. A revised edition of this report (20 pages) 
appears in the Association's bulletin of February, 1917. 

Although The EMcient College propounds a minimum of 
students (500), of faculty (50), of administration ex- 
penses ($18,650), of instructional salaries ($99,000), of 
maintenance costs ($49,100), and of total expenses ($166,- 
750), it holds up as another minimum essential of the effi- 
cient college — a continuous self-survey. 

3. Who Shall Make Surveys f 

That the survey is here to stay is no longer the subject of 
disagreement in colleges and universities. There is, how- 
ever, still much disagreement as to whether surveys should 
be made exclusively by members of the college to be sur- 
veyed ; by local officers plus outside experts ; by widely ad- 
vertised educational officers of other institutions; by the 
United States Bureau of Education; by one of the great 
foundations ; by state departments or central boards of edu- 
cation ; by the alumni ; or by a combination of the foregoing 
possibles and desirables. 

So far as privately supported colleges are concerned, it 
is probable that initiative in most of the surveys will be 
taken by presidents. It will be natural for them when em- 
ploying outside agents to turn to " acknowledged educational 
experts " ; i.e., to widely advertised educational leaders or 
" successful college administrators." 

One important lesson will be learned for the college group 
only through experience; viz., that reputation for educa- 
tional leadership and for educational management is due to 
several other factors besides ability to analyze local situa- 
tions and local needs. 

Survey reports by distinguished leaders will turn out to be 
very much like addresses made at installations — general- 
ities about and apostrophes to the ideals of education. 
When asked how such surveys have helped them, many col- 
lege presidents will answer as a health officer once answered 



Possible Surveyors 5 

when asked what his board had obtained from a $1200 
health survey that was not in his annual report : *' Search 
me," Because it is true of surveys as it is of travel, that 
what one sees depends upon what one asks, the educational 
leader who comes to answer questions rather than to ask 
them will console more than he helps. 

The publicly supported college will incline to take the at- 
titude expressed in resolutions passed at two meetings of the 
National Education Association, that the logical surveyor of 
publicly supported higher education is the United States 
Bureau of Education. Unless survey reports and costs 
prove the contrary, it will be assumed that this national bu- 
reau will be impartial, sympathetic, and less expensive. 

Regarding the capabilities and probabilities of surveys by 
the United States Bureau of Education, several facts have 
been either forgotten or sidetracked. In the first place, as 
the bureau itself is trying to have educators see, it is not 
equipped to make college surveys. It has neither investi- 
gators nor analysts nor clerks nor classified information. 
Wherever it undertakes a survey it must do one of three 
things: (i) neglect other work which it has undertaken; 
(2) make a superficial survey, as in Oregon; or (3) enlist 
the services of persons not on its staff, as in Iowa, North 
Dakota, and Washington. So far as the United States Bu- 
reau of Education is invited to make surveys, the inviters 
owe it to themselves and to the rest of the country to help 
secure funds by which that bureau can adequately survey. 

Several other limitations of the United States bureau 
seem to have been forgotten. When employing distin- 
guished presidents and professors, it is by the very nature 
of this relation prevented from exacting the efBciency neces- 
sary for its own protection. For some time to come no 
commissioner of education will feel himself secure enough 
to ask a celebrated president or educational specialist to sub- 
mit in advance a detailed plan for study or to rewrite a 
report by substituting information for exhortation. Yet 
these are fundamental requirements in survey supervision. 

Again, not until long after the first crop of surveys has 



6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

been reaped will any commissioner of education feel that the 
United States Bureau of Education is strongly enough en- 
trenched in public approbation and confidence for him to 
point out serious derelictions and inadequacies of educa- 
tional management. Yet the constituency which demands 
and pays for the survey is entitled not only to that part of 
the truth which it is safe or tactful for the United States 
bureau to report but to every important truth about the field 
surveyed. 

There is another consideration which will undoubtedly 
cause the withdrawal of the United States bureau as a sur- 
veyor; viz., that any local or special service which reduces 
its ability to look objectively, impartially, and unselfishly at 
educational movements jeopardizes its power to serve the 
whole country. When a United States bureau signs a super- 
ficial survey report or a report containing educational fal- 
lacies, from that hour it has a protective investment in super- 
ficial and inadequate surveying. Obviously it cannot con- 
fidently and conscientiously comment upon educational in- 
vestigations and criticisms by others when conscious that it 
is living in a glass house. Having advised Iowa to average 
maximum and minimum occupancy, to average salaries 
within a department at $2000, to average student-clock-hours 
within a department at 300, our national bureau cannot 
graciously advise colleges to eschew averages. 

It is noticeable — in fact a trifle humorous — that the de- 
mand to be surveyed by the United States bureau because 
it is a public agency has not extended to a demand to be sur- 
veyed by state supervisory boards or commissioners of edu- 
cation. Yet, in how many states is the department of public 
instruction not better equipped with directors, investigators, 
clerical assistants, and comprehension of educational work 
than is — thus far — the United States Bureau of Edu- 
cation ? 

The great foundations are being thoroughly tested as sur- 
veyors. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
Teaching has already reported upon the teaching of medi- 
cine and physics; is about to report upon the teaching of 



Foundations as Surveyors 7 

law and engineering; has surveyed education in Vermont; 
and is now completing its survey of normal schools in Mis- 
souri and Indiana. The General Education Board has 
never published the results of its general surveys of colleges 
and normal schools ; it is now, however, making a survey of 
higher education in Maryland, the results of which are cer- 
tain to be published. The Russell Sage Foundation through 
its educational division has not thus far entered the higher 
education field; its Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, however, has 
helped establish methods of analysis that are certain to be 
carried into surveys of colleges. 

There are certain " psychological barriers " which will 
make it difficult for either the Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching or the General Education Board 
to participate in surveys for concrete facts regarding the 
management of colleges and universities. For example, 
both boards have as trustees men who are also presidents 
of state-supported universities. A decent regard for the eti- 
quette of mankind will keep them out of a possible predica- 
ment where only a seriously or mildly unfavorable report 
will reflect the facts. Similarly a decent respect for the 
opinion of mankind will keep these foundations from the 
equally embarrassing position of throwing bouquets at one 
of their own number. In the long run the reason for a sur- 
vey is to secure impersonal, incontrovertible, unbiased, spe- 
cific, useful information. To give this kind of information 
to the public about institutions represented on their boards, 
institutions which are asking them for help, or other insti- 
tutions, will in the long run seem incompatible with the gen- 
eral purposes and organization of these two great founda- 
tions. 

Another reason why colleges will tend to look away from 
foundations for their surveys is that it will be found easier 
to make a straight business arrangement with surveyors 
who have not the multimillionaire outlook. It is not an 
easy thing for a college wishing a contribution from Mr. 
Rockefeller or Mr. Carnegie or from one of their founda- 
tions to ask foundation surveyors to make a report clearer ; 



8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

to cite specific instances in support of general criticism ; to 
correct their percentages and additions ; to have classes vis- 
ited a second time ; to abandon certain premises ; etc. Nor 
will it ever be easy for a president of a richly endowed uni- 
versity or a richly supported public college to deal as man to 
man or as employer to employee with heads of richly en- 
dowed national foundations that give or withhold money, 
favor, and recognition. 

Yet it is clear that many surveyors will be needed who 
will hold the same relation to employers as do other con- 
sulting experts. The demand may prove great enough to 
support professional groups of college analysts, surveyors, 
and reporters who will be subject to call on the same profes- 
sional basis as are accountants, engineers, architects, and 
other builders, even for reviewing tentative plans or manu- 
script reports of surveys by others. 

Many colleges have already benefited from surveys by 
alumni. For example, Harvard classes have been visited by 
alumni representatives, and at Texas complaints and con- 
troversial issues have been investigated. In Wisconsin the 
alumni are represented on the official board of visitors, who 
are supposed to make a continuous survey. Alumni surveys 
will increase in number and scope as other surveys produce 
facts and raise questions. 

One other group of surveyors remains, and it is the group 
which will do the greater part of future college surveying; 
viz., college officers and faculties. Some surveys or partial 
surveys will be made by college presidents or trustees ; others 
by business managers; others by the faculty unaided; and 
others by faculty working with other officers or faculty with 
the aid of experienced investigators from the outside fa- 
miliar with short cuts in seeking and compiling facts. 

4. Every Official Report a Survey 

In a sense every official report is a survey report. The 
aim of the current and administrative survey is conserva- 
tion and remedy, — conservation and protection of forces 
and methods that are operating satisfactorily and remedial 



Questions or Notes 9 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



lo Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

action where forces and methods are not yet acting satis- 
factorily enough. 

The permanent record of this type of survey is the annual, 
biennial, or other official report. In relatively few instances 
will administrators fail to include in their periodic reports 
any evidences of improvements effected or new truths 
gathered. It is for want of, and not from disregard of, spe- 
cific evidences of progress that so many college reporters 
use their space for generalizations and for statistics of little 
or no significance. Where this year's facts are almost iden- 
tical with last year's facts, there is obviously little reason 
for interpretation. 

A notable change has taken place in college reports. Ele- 
ments to be considered when reporting will be specified later 
as elements to be looked for in surveys. Suffice it to recall 
here that an official report reflects study or lack of study by 
the reporter during the period under review. It is a survey 
report. If there has been no survey, there can be no survey 
findings. So far as there has been current cumulative sur- 
vey, the official report is the natural and best agency for 
promptly imparting and permanently recording its results. 
The election of President M. L. Burton of Smith College 
to the presidency of the University of Minnesota was fur- 
thered by his reputation for self -surveying. 

5. Self -Surveys — Current and Special 

The human factor in college administration is similar to 
the human factor everywhere else. It is by emphasizing 
its likenesses to business and government rather than its un- 
likenesses that higher education will best know itself. 

Just as the keenest inspector of a milk supply is the person 
who has milk for sale which he does not want thrown away 
by health officers because unclean, so the best possible sur- 
veyors of a college are those persons who are responsible 
for its success and standing. Not until the crusade for 
clean milk enlisted the milk producer and seller as inspectors 
did the crusade make substantial progress. Likewise only 
so far as the crusade for bigger and better results from 



Dean Hagerty on Self -Surveys 1 1 

higher education enlists responsible insiders will it sub- 
stantially aid our colleges. 

For current survey by insiders the college management 
must be held responsible. It must ask questions ; secure an- 
swers; compile and classify summaries; interpret answers; 
submit information to faculty and constituency for inter- 
pretation and use. These steps constitute the continuous 
cumulative administrative survey. They are essentials of 
scientific management. 

The only part of a current survey for which the faculty 
is responsible is the record that each member must keep in 
order to answer questions which come to him from college 
officers. With respect to his own work and his own subject 
it is expected that each instructor will conduct a continuous 
survey. 

The more effective the current survey and the more in- 
formation it puts in circulation, the more numerous will be 
the special surveys by insiders, especially by faculty groups. 

Wherever special investigations are numerous, the term 
survey gives way to study, or examination, or analysis. 
Soon educational literature will drop the terms survey and 
self-survey. Faculties and officers will regularly search for 
facts with which to settle questions of policy. Surveys by 
outsiders will be followed by self -surveys by insiders to see 
how far conditions have changed. Requests for new build- 
ings will be preceded by special studies showing use, partial 
use, and non-use of existing buildings. Each semester's 
crop of facts from current administrative self -surveys will 
be winnowed and followed by special surveys through de- 
partmental or faculty committees and interested individuals. 

Of the need for self -surveys Dean James E. Hagerty, of 
Ohio State University's College of Commerce and Journal- 
ism, writes: 

" Many heads of educational institutions are ig- 
norant of some of the essential comparative facts which 
they should know in order to be efficient. In absence 
of this information it is difficult for them to work out 



12 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

an even development of their institutions. ... A uni- 
versity is, as a rule, better prepared to obtain such facts 
than is a manufacturing concern, since it has trained 
men v^ho are in the habit of investigating. . . . You 
are right in saying that the administrative authorities 
of an educational institution should be making a con- 
tinual survey." 

6. Inside Reasons for Surveys by Insiders 

During the year 191 6 widely published criticisms of col- 
lege management and purposes were made by college in- 
siders. A number of these criticisms are here repeated, 
first to indicate the unrest and self -analysis that are already 
current, and secondly, to suggest the need for cumulative 
indexes of criticisms that self-surveys must answer. After 
each item is printed F. . . . (Yes), iV.... (No), .^.... 
(Uncertain). It is suggested that each reader check (V) 
each item for his own college and try to answer where and 
how often each criticism applies, or make further study 
where question mark is checked. 

College government undemocratic. F . . . . AT ... . f.... 
Trustees usurp faculty functions. F . . . . AT ... . f.... 
Presidents dominate. F. . . . AT...., F.... 
Extravagance is fostered. F . . . . N. . . . F. . . . 
Administrative procedure is cumbersome. F . . . . N , , , ,, 
f 

Teachers underpaid one third. F.... N.... f.... 
Teachers overworked. F . . . . N . . , . ? . . . . 
Teachers limited to schedule. F . . . . N . . . . f... 
Teachers taskmasters instead of inspirers. F. . . . N 



Cooperation for democracy lacking. F. . . . N . . . . f 

Selection of a college not fittingly directed. F 

AT.... ?..,. 

Standards of admission too low. F. . . . N . . . . ? 



College Criticisms of Colleges 13 

Entrance requirements no test of fitness. Y . . . . AT. . . . 
f 

Coordination between college and secondary schools neg- 
lected. Y iV.... r,... 

Snobbishness created by fraternities. Y AT... 

? 



Examinations destroy real comprehension. Y . . . . N . 
f 

Piecemeal examinations not thorough. Y . . . . N , 
f 

Traditional subjects adhered to. Y,.., N.... f, 
New studies not recognized. F. . . . iV. . . . f . . . . 
Required subjects not all valuable. F . . . . N . , . . f. 

No cultural curriculum. F. . . . N. , . . 
Current history neglected. F . . . . A'^ . . 
Contemporary ignorance overlooked. 

f. . . . 
Courses too long by one third. F . . . . 
Foreign languages crowd out English. 



? 

f . . . 
Y. '.'.',' 


' N,.,. 


AT.... 
F.... 


f 



"College life" more important than studies. F. . . . 

N ^ 

Character development neglected. F A/".... ?,.,, 

College graduates lack perspective. F. . . . N , . . , f . . . . 

Human knowledge not required. F. . . . N . . . . f . . . . 

Contributions to public service small. F. . . . N. . . , 

f 

Facts taught without antecedents or consequents. F. . . , 

Matter not correlated. F N ? 

History not related to modern life. F.... AT.... 

f 

Student's psychology is not studied. F. . . . AT. . . . 
? 



14 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Student's cooperation not obtained. Y,... iV. . .-. 
f 

Industrial and domestic intelligence undeveloped. Y. . . . 

Intellectual growth not sufficiently prompted. Y. . . , 
iV f 

Intellectual enthusiasm suppressed. F. . . . N . , , . f 

Talent and genius not developed. F. . . . AT. . . . ? , , , . 

Taste in music, literature, and art neglected. Y . . . . 

AT.... ?..,. 

7. Reasons for Surveys by Outsiders 

The reasons for having special studies by outsiders are 
independent of college efficiency and have to do with per- 
sonal, local, or seasonal elements. In fact, it will undoubt- 
edly come to pass with colleges as it has with business cor- 
porations that outside analysts or " business doctors " will 
be called on more often by the consciously efficient than by 
the consciously inefficient or not-yet-consciously efficient. 

There was a time when doctors welcomed epidemics and 
opposed the dissemination of health facts. Today they 
know that people well informed in health matters support 
the medical profession better than those who are ignorant 
of health facts. Every advance in college management will 
increase the demand for outside photographers and archi- 
tects. As it becomes easier to prove efficiency, colleges 
against which unfounded criticisms are made will appeal to 
surveys as fact finders. Open criticism will be welcomed 
because it affords opportunities to supplant misinformation 
with information, and hostility or indifference with friend- 
ship. 

To make a survey desirable it is not necessary that any 
considerable fraction of one's constituency be dissatisfied or 
critical. A noisy, insistent, or influential minority, however 
small, may do more damage than an overwhelming majority 
which expresses dissatisfaction mildly or sporadically. 

Private colleges will resort to outside surveys because of 



Questions or Notes 15 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



1 6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

such personal and local elements as these: desire to show 
need for additional endowment; factional controversy 
within the faculty or between faculty and trustees ; trustee 
dissatisfaction; alumni dissatisfaction; disparaging com- 
ment or action by state universities, larger colleges, entrance 
board, or great foundation. 

Publicly supported institutions of higher learning will, ir- 
respective of their actual efficiency and merit, resort to spe- 
cial surveys as the best means of settling personal and local 
difficulties due to the causes above mentioned and to the 
following : legislative criticism ; demand from taxpayers for 
retrenchment ; desire to prevent threatened reduction of ap- 
propriations ; desire to justify public requests for additional 
funds to be used in improving or extending service ; political 
differences involving university management ; other schools' 
jealousy of university domination and leadership ; desire to 
see whether state universities are receiving disproportionate 
shares of state money and are exerting disproportionate in- 
fluence upon lower schools; desire to have higher institu- 
tions included in the study of the state's whole program for 
education. 

8. What Should Special Surveys Report? 

A surprisingly large amount of money has already been 
spent on reporting to communities their educational history ; 
how many buildings they own; how much money they 
spend ; how many students they have ; how their university 
or public schools are organized; how the work is divided; 
how beautifully the campus is set between hills ; or how the 
institution started. An astonishingly large amount of 
money, too, has been spent in solemnly telling those who pay 
for surveys the very same facts which earlier had been told 
to the surveyors as reasons for the survey. Finally, an 
amazingly large proportion of survey findings have been re- 
iterations of educational truths as widely accepted as are the 
Ten Commandments, the law of gravitation, or the meaning 
of the Fourth of July. 
, Wherever the purpose of a survey is to find out something 




A municipal exhibit 



Dayton Bureau of Research 




Teaching taxpayers to test results 

Self-surveys provide field training for students 



Dayton 



What Special Surveys Should Report 17 

that is not already known, the obvious purpose of a survey 
report is to tell whether this sought-for information has 
been obtained and what the answer is. On the other hand, 
wherever the purpose of a survey is to secure the opinion 
of a surveyor without respect to the facts upon which that 
opinion is based, the report has obviously fulfilled its pur- 
pose if it conveys that opinion. 

During my first interview with the president of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, he expressed the hope that the state 
board of public affairs would have the survey made by 
recognized leaders in the educational field. When asked, 
however, who the leaders were whose opinion he would ac- 
cept apart from the facts given in support of their opinions, 
he frankly stated that after all a survey report would have 
weight because of its facts rather than because of its 
opinions. 

Once given agreed-upon facts about any college, the 
thinking of the local faculty and officers will almost inevit- 
ably lead to an opinion or suggestion which is sound for that 
^ particular college. If with facts before them the local re- 
J sponsible officers will not do the thinking necessary to reach 
the most serviceable and best-fitting conclusion, there is lit- 
tle prospect that they will make helpful use of obiter dicta, 
ex cathedra utterances, and unsupported opinions of survey- 
ors, however noted or notorious. 

That the surveyor is under obligations not to intrude his 
own personality into his findings of fact is universally con- 
ceded. Is it not just as clear that he is under obligation to 
eliminate other personalities when deciding what and how 
far to study and what to report ? As a matter of fact there 
is far more danger that reports will be shaped to exclude 
references to or evidences about individuals on the teaching 
or administrative staff of the college surveyed than that 
the surveyor will inject his personal prejudices and desires 
into survey reports. 

After a few more survey reports are available for study 
by those contemplating surveys, certain specifications will 
be made as to final reports. An ounce of specification will 



1 8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

be considered worth more than a ton of generality. Twice- 
told tales will be excluded. General philosophy and local 
history will not be paid for, or at least will be thrown into 
an appendix or a special pamphlet where they cannot be con- 
fused with survey findings. Matters which belong in ad- 
ministrative reports will be relegated to those reports, and 
the survey will declare that such reports either contain neces- 
sary points or have heretofore lacked them. 

Succinctly, clearly, and specifically the survey report will 
state fact after fact. Earmarks of progress and efficiency 
will be listed to show the direction in which college service 
has striven. Conditions and methods needing correction or 
other administrative attention will be listed as opportunities 
for increasing efficiency. 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



II 

PROCEDURE FOR A COOPERATIVE COLLEGE 

SURVEY 

9. Twelve Steps for a Cooperative Survey 

NOT all college surveys can be cooperative. Occasion- 
ally questions will arise where time limits, or perhaps 
personality limits, will make it inadvisable for the surveyor 
to ask further help from persons concerned than the accu- 
rate answering of questions. Now and then will be a survey 
by outsiders or by official insiders without knowledge on the 
part of those surveyed that a special study is under way. 
In the greater number of college surveys, however, whether 
current or special, by insiders or outsiders, the following 
twelve steps will be found helpful: 

1. A written agreement will be reached in ad- 

vance as to ground to be covered, methods 
to be used, and money and men available. 

Many difficulties of previous surveys have arisen from un- 
certainty, indefiniteness, or disagreement among those who 
initiated them. There are difficulties enough inherent in 
trying to secure and interpret facts without running pre- 
ventable risks. " You cannot put out a conflagration with 
an atomizer." Nor can you do a $50,000 job for $5000, 
nor easily avoid misunderstandings where many partners 
are trying to work without a written agreement. 

2. Confidential information will be welcomed; 

used when confirmed; and informants pro- 
tected. 

There is a strong prejudice against using confidential 
information. I once heard a survey director reply to per- 
sons who were giving him information which was invalu- 
able if correct, that he would not accept the information 
even as a hint unless they would sign their names to it. 

19 



20 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

The surveyors of Wisconsin's university and normal schools 
promised to regard as confidential any communication so 
marked. It seemed unfair alike to taxpayers who wanted 
the truth and to persons who had the truth for the surveyors 
not to exhaust all sources of information. It would have 
been extremely unfair to use unconfirmed assertions. 

Whether rightly or wrongly, there are in every large or- 
ganization several persons who believe they possess im- 
portant truths as to conditions needing correction, who at 
the same time sincerely believe that they will suffer reprisal 
if their colleagues or superiors know that they have ex- 
pressed such belief to surveyors. This condition will con- 
front self -surveyors and faculty committees just as it con- 
fronts the outside surveyor. It is extravagant to shut the 
doors on such information. In many cases the surveyor 
has opportunity to dislodge untruths and fear by following 
up tip or fact from confidential sources. This position is 
taken by colleges which maintain question and complaint 
boxes as an aid to current administrative surveys. Confi- 
dential treatment was pledged by the Iowa commission of 
1916. 

3. Faculty and officers will cooperate in outlin- 
ing questions to be answered and in making 
criticisms and constructive suggestions. 

The valuable Oberlin survey questions were compiled 
from faculty criticisms and suggestions. Those who know 
a working organism most intimately also know best where 
it is not working smoothly or expansively. Numerous im- 
portant facts and suggestions were obtained by asking the 
University of Wisconsin's faculty and officers to list facts 
to be confirmed; subjects to be studied; and questions to be 
asked. The Iowa commission likewise prepared a letter 
of inquiry concerning the educational needs of the state 
which, through the cooperation of the state board of educa- 
tion, was sent to presidents of chambers of commerce, heads 
of granges, newspaper editors, superintendents of schools, 
and certain other citizens of distinction. While this letter 



12 Steps for a Cooperative Survey 21 

asked for opinions as to the efficiency of organization and 
management of state institutions and the wisdom of their 
educational poHcies, it also asked correspondents to suggest 
possible avenues of waste through unnecessary duplication 
and the most profitable lines for future development. For 
instance, Question 5 read, " Would you suggest any new 
activities directly or indirectly for the benefit of the people 
of the state which any one of the institutions should take 
up?" 

4. Those whose work is to be surveyed will par- 
ticipate in collecting and analyzing infor- 
mation. 

For the Ohio school survey the presidents and deans of 
the state-supported normal schools accompanied the survey 
director, Dr. H. L. Brittain, in classroom observations. For 
the University of Wisconsin survey four different members 
of the department of education joined in visiting classes for 
the training of teachers. Three of them also helped work 
out examination questions for testing the extent to which 
students digested theoretical courses. In every step of Mi- 
ami's survey faculty and deans are working together. 
Wherever possible, colleges should protect surveyors and 
benefit themselves by having representatives present as 
classes are visited; as reports are read; as replies are di- 
gested; and information analyzed. 

^, Before publication, and even before use for 
criticism or suggestion, all statements of 
fact will be submitted to college officers 
affected for confirmation or modification. 

This step should be taken in the interest of both surveyor 
and surveyed. No one wants to report what is incorrect 
or incomplete. No one wants his work incorrectly or in- 
completely described. With few exceptions those surveyed 
will prefer frank acknowledgment of unpleasant facts to 
either untenable denials or evasions or filibustering. 



22 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

6. To insure a build-as-it-goes survey, the find- 
ings will be reviewed with college officers 
as work progresses. 

So far as this is done the final survey report becomes a 
record of conditions changed, where otherwise it must be a 
list of conditions needing to be changed. 

It is not always possible to have corrective steps taken 
immediately upon the heels of interim reports. It is feas- 
ible, however, to start whatever remedial action is involved 
the minute that responsible officers concede the facts which 
show need for action. For example, Edward Mandel, prin- 
cipal of a large Manhattan school, carefully watched the 
compilation of facts reported by those who surveyed his 
school. Frequently he did not wait longer than to see the 
headings of tabulation sheets before hurrying to his school 
and starting for succeeding weeks the collection of infor- 
mation which he considered significant. Long before our 
report was written, and while many tabulations were incom- 
plete, he had instituted changes in procedure, self-surveys 
of pupil ages and progress, etc. 

One morning at about ten o'clock we telephoned to a 
University of Wisconsin regent that there were facts re- 
garding the student rooming directory which we thought 
officers of the university might wish to use immediately. 
He reviewed these facts at noon; by 2.30 had communi- 
cated by long-distance telephone with the executive com- 
mittee; for them had withdrawn the existing directory; 
and through the business manager, now president of Tufts 
College, had started the self -survey necessary for an ade- 
quate directory. 

Recently while a surveyor was reporting to Alexander 
Fi chandler on certain class work, the latter left the room. 
He returned soon and reported a corrective started ! 

If an opportunity to help an instructor — and his stu- 
dents — presents itself clearly at the first visit to his class, 
why wait two months or a year to use that information 
helpfully? 



12 Steps for a Cooperative Survey 23 

7. Pacts will be stated separately from criti- 

cisms and suggestions. 

At first college officers find themselves disliking the state- 
ment of fact about themselves apart from the interpreta- 
tion of it. Not infrequently surveyors find that before 
answering a question college officers want to know what 
the questioner has in mind by the question. If a college 
survey were a series of debates, a mere pitting of wit 
against wit, foil against foil, a separate statement of facts 
would never be possible or desirable. But a college survey 
is an entirely different kind of party. By definition its pur- 
pose is to secure helpful information and suggestion. If 
there is disagreement with respect to facts, there can be 
little hope of agreement with respect to criticisms and sug- 
gestions which in theory are based upon facts. 

The first step forward, therefore, is agreement as to facts. 
For example, a survey reports that such and such a profes- 
sor has five classes with one person in a class. Whatever 
this may mean, whether that the professor has an excep- 
tional opportunity, or exceptionally high standards, or an 
exceptionally low drawing power, or an exceptional sub- 
ject, is not the meaning something entirely distinct from 
the fact? Before trying to find out what it means, should 
not the surveyor be sure that he is talking about facts con- 
ceded? The willingness to accept conclusions while deny- 
ing the facts is a dangerous desire for immunity from crit- 
icism, which should be discouraged. Little good comes 
from reforms built upon assertions that reform is not 
needed. 

8. Criticisms, listed separately, will be sup- 

ported by facts. 

Unless criticisms are listed separately, an error as to one 
fact associated with ten others may prevent a fair hearing 
for eleven facts. Experience shows that where facts are 
listed in short paragraphs, each by itself, each gets its own 
hearing. Moreover, a flaw in any one is easily corrected 



24 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

without prejudice for or against the rest of the facts. An- 
other reason for listing criticisms separately is that while 
many persons are involved in all criticisms fewer or only 
one are involved in each criticism. The reason for sup- 
porting criticism with facts is obvious. Even if the sur- 
veyed are willing to accept without challenge the criticisms 
of surveyors, the important fact remains that the surveyed 
cannot understand the import of the criticism unless they 
see the facts upon which it is based. In other words, the 
fact-supported criticism is more easily usable. 

9. Every effort will be employed to secure 
agreement with respect to facts before 
taking up criticisms and with respect to 
criticisms before taking up suggestions. 

Men who are agreed both as to facts and as to criti- 
cisms find little difficulty in considering constructively any 
suggestions which are aimed to recognize agreed-upon facts 
and to meet agreed-upon criticisms. For any condition 
needing correction, however, there may be five or ten or 
more different solutions. The surveyed may agree with 
surveyor as to the facts and as to criticisms and yet disagree 
radically as to the best remedial action. Surveyors under- 
value their opportunities when they feel that their sugges- 
tions are more important than the facts and the criticisms 
which result from those facts. 

If persons surveyed have a better remedy than the sur- 
veyor, — as quite frequently they really ought to have, — 
the surveyor should be grateful — and modest. 

Any survey whose findings of fact and whose criticisms 
are accepted will be productive of untold benefit, even if not 
one of its recommendations is literally adopted. 

10. Constructive suggestions will be based on 
facts presented and criticisms agreed 
upon. 

This step many surveyors will not take unless required 
to do so by persons surveyed. So long as workers accept 



12 Steps for a Cooperative Survey 25 

unanalyzed, unsupported judgments upon their work from 
inside or outside surveyors, so long will the majority of 
surveyors pronounce judgment and make suggestions with- 
out anchoring themselves to facts or disclosing their fact 
base. 

If colleges are to be satisfied with unsupported recom- 
mendations, they might better save the money required to 
make surveys and spend an infinitesimal fraction of it on 
books, essays, and addresses by distinguished educators. 

Conceding for the sake of argument that there are edu- 
cators with such insight and hindsight and foresight that 
it is irreverent to ask them for the fact base of their judg- 
ment, must we not also concede that the minds of persons 
surveyed are such that they cannot fully understand or 
clearly see a recommendation apart from the local insti- 
tutional facts upon which it is presumably based? 

II. So far as there is disagreement with respect 
to fact, criticism, or suggestion, the exist- 
ence of this disagreement and the grounds 
of it will be stated. 

This is a sound principle for faculty committees and edu- 
cational minorities generally to adopt. Political bodies 
have adopted it so far as minorities want to have the fact 
and grounds of disagreement made known. 

The Wisconsin budget law requires that when the state 
efficiency commission submits its budget to the legislature it 
must show where there are increases and decreases; the 
reason for them ; and the reason why a minority of the com- 
mission or the incoming governor voted against the allow- 
ances recommended by the majority. 

Where in spite of conference there persists disagreement 
with respect to fact, both positions will be stated. Pref- 
erably time will be taken, no matter how long, to confront 
the disagreeing party with facts which will remove all pos- 
sibility of further disagreement. 

On a matter like the conduct of classes subsequent visits 
may not remove disagreement as to what was found on the 



26 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

previous visit but will establish the necessary facts as to 
how the class is now being conducted. 

In most cases disagreement cannot survive cooperative 
effort to remove it. 

The time necessary for such cooperative effort should be 
guaranteed in advance. 

12. Survey findings will be issued in small in- 
stallments. 

This policy was agreed upon in writing before the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin survey started. Unfortunately the 
first installments were ready during the last weeks of a po- 
litical campaign. It was decided that it would be unwise 
to have the survey confused in the public mind with this 
campaign. Later the installment plan was largely aban- 
doned. The principle, however, was sound, as has been 
repeatedly shown. For example, the space given to each 
of twenty installments of New York City's survey, includ- 
ing many of a technical character, was almost as great as 
could have been given to the entire survey report if issued 
at one time. 

Even if newspapers could print all of an expensive re- 
port intended for the public, or even if a college faculty 
could take the time to review all of a report intended for 
them, it is an unescapable fact that public and faculty alike 
can no more easily digest at one reading a survey report 
about a whole college than they can assimilate a month's 
rations at one sitting. 

Because survey reports are useful only so far as they 
are interesting and related to local and important duties, 
they must go to responsible persons in doses small enough 
to be studied and digested without interfering with time 
mortgaged to routine duties. 

The reason against publishing survey results in small in- 
stallments is thus summarized by Dean Hagerty: 

" Issuing reports piecemeal provides a disorganizing 
publicity and irritation, and the educational world and 



Publishing Survey Findings 27 

all concerned are left wholly at sea with respect to the 
exact content and real merits of the survey." 

That there is just as much sea around complete reports 
as around installments, experience has shown. If steps 
here suggested are followed, the possibility of successful 
controversy over agreed-upon facts will almost disappear. 

13. Should Survey Findings Be Published? 

If any survey report is published, it certainly should tell 
the truth and all the significant truth in answer to the ques- 
tions which the client asks to have answered. 

Whether a particular survey report should be published 
depends upon the client's wishes. If a president asks for a 
survey of himself as administrator, it is not necessary to 
publish the findings to any one but himself. If trustees 
ask for a survey for their own guidance, the report need not 
be published to any one else but the trustees unless with- 
holding its findings from taxpayers, faculty, or alumni 
promises more harm than good. If a legislature asks for 
a survey, the client is the public and the report should be 
published. 

To this position Dean Hagerty demurs. So far as his 
demurrer accentuates the desirability of retaining outsiders 
as consultants to administrative officers rather than as re- 
porters, I still feel that it does not apply. It is accepted 
where the survey is initiated by forces other than the ad- 
ministrative officers. 

" I doubt if it is worth while to publish a survey 
report made by an outside independent institution. . . . 
The outside surveyor should assume the same attitude 
which an accounting firm assumes when it examines 
the books of a private business; i.e., it goes over the 
books, finds the facts, reports the true status, and 
recommends desirable changes. If the accountants 
should publish their findings in each case, over one half 
the businesses investigated would be demoralized and 



28 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

driven into the bankruptcy courts. ... I believe the 
university survey of the future will obtain the facts, 
make recommendations to the administrative authori- 
ties, and let them determine v^^hat to publish." 

lo. Securing Faculty Cooperation 

Three different faculty groups have cooperated in work- 
ing out comprehensive questions for projected surveys of 
their institutions to answer. The Oberlin faculty made a 
substantial beginning in 1909. Later the University of 
Chicago faculty worked out a set of questions for alumni, 
seniors, and juniors, regarding preference for lectures, reci- 
tations, combination of recitation and discussion, etc. Un- 
fortunately both sets of questions are out of print and are 
only here and there available. Both lists, however, were 
drawn upon for the University of Wisconsin survey ques- 
tions which are here reproduced in Appendices I and II, 
because they represent an expenditure of time and money 
which few colleges can afford, but which can easily and 
quickly be utilized by any officer or group. No question is 
there by accident. With insignificant exceptions each ques- 
tion had passed the gantlet of instructors and officers of one 
or three of the above-mentioned faculties, — Oberlin, Chi- 
cago, and Wisconsin. In addition, the final Wisconsin 
list was " censored " by a number of outside educators in 
public-school and normal-school work. 

Numerous helpful suggestions were obtained for the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin survey by sending out to the faculty, 
alumni, editors, etc., twelve general questions agreed upon 
as stating the general scope of the survey. By substituting 
" community " for " state " these questions fit the private 
college or university as well as state-supported institutions : 

1. What, if anything, is the University of Wisconsin 
undertaking that the state as a whole does not wish it 
to do? 

2. What, if anything, is the university failing to under- 
take which the state wishes it to do ? 



Securing Faculty Cooperation 29 

3. Is the university doing well enough what it does ? 

4. Is it doing inexpensively enough what it does ? 

5. What parts of its work, if any, are inadequately sup- 
ported ? 

6. What parts of its work are out of proportion — too 
large, too small — to its program as a whole ? 

7. Is the state's support of the university proportionate 
or disproportionate to state support of other public 
educational activities ? 

8. Is the university's business management — in policy, 
planning, purchasing, supervising, checking, and re- 
porting — adequate and efficient ? 

9. Does the legislative policy in dealing with the uni- 
versity and other educational activities reflect adequate 
information and efficient use of information ? 

10. What is the university's relation with, and influence 
upon, the rest of the state's system of public educa- 
tion? 

1 1. What are the standards of living, social and economic, 
in the university? 

12. What not-yet-met needs of the state which the uni- 
versity might meet and what opportunities for re- 
trenchment or increased efficiency should be reported 
to the next legislature? 

Ten Steps toward Securing Faculty Cooperation 

Of the ten first steps here suggested all may profitably be 
taken by the self -survey or, whether administrative officer 
or instructor or trustee : 

1. Agree in writing upon a procedure that will include 
at least the twelve steps mentioned above on page 
17. 

2. Look over the Wisconsin survey questions and use 
those which will be helpful directly or by suggestion. 

3. Let survey outliners submit their own first-draft ques- 
tions to faculty and officers, including alumni officers 
whose work is to be surveyed, with request for modifi- 
cations and additions. 



30 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

4. While the preceding steps are being taken, secure all 
survey reports published to date and " high spot *' 
them for questions or tests that ought to be locally 
applied. The United States Bureau of Education will 
always be able to reply promptly with a complete list 
of college survey reports. 

5. Ask central boards of education, notably in Iowa, 
Idaho, Kansas, and Wisconsin, for copies of their 
questionnaires and record forms for similar " high 
spotting," for use in formulating and applying ques- 
tions and tests. 

6. Place the final composite of questions that seem de- 
sirable and necessary in the hands of all persons vi- 
tally concerned in the survey results. In Wisconsin 
these questions were sent to faculty members; non- 
instructional officers ; regents and former regents ; offi- 
cial board of visitors; alumni officers; county super- 
intendents of schools, and all normal-school presi- 
dents; and leading editors. A private college will 
seldom wish to include editors, except those whom it 
counts among its principal supporters but will, how- 
ever, wisely offer to send copies to principal donors. 

7. Before it is too late to benefit from the experience 
of others, send questions to several presidents, deans, 
registrars, department heads or instructors in other 
colleges most likely to have similar problems and to 
be interested in making a success of the projected 
survey. A request for suggestions will bring, inter 
alia, several marked reports or addresses and helpful 
record forms. The Wisconsin survey did this and 
received many valuable suggestions and criticisms. 
Presidents of private colleges in Wisconsin undertook, 
too late unfortunately, to secure with respect to their 
own colleges information for later comparison with 
University of Wisconsin facts. For every unit of 
benefit obtainable from criticism by one's colleagues 
and competitors after a survey is over many units of 
benefit are obtainable by surveyor, surveyed, and col- 



Securing Faculty Cooperation 31 

leagues of both by submission of the survey plan while 
it is yet tentative and improvable. 
8. Ask officers and faculty to name persons who will 
represent them in collecting and considering informa- 
tion. Although all officers and faculty members are 
interested, it is impossible for all to participate equally. 
Many questions arise which call for prompt action that 
it is better to take after consulting with authorized 
representatives. Usually, too, adequate work on a co- 
operative survey calls for slight or considerable read- 
justment of teaching and other college loads. Fin- 
ally, what's everybody's business is nobody's business. 
Only through designated representatives may a col- 
lege make sure that the generous interest, occasional 
suggestion and criticism will be reservoired for sur- 
vey uses. 
Q. Use survey questions, compilations, and summaries as 
laboratory material for training students. Maga- 
zines, books, official college reports and catalogs 
foundation reports, survey reports for colleges and 
secondary schools, discussions from allied fields such 
as state budget making, etc., contain vast quantities of 
material, — too helpful to be neglected and too vast 
for analysis by official surveyors. Every year there 
is a new crop of criticisms of colleges by colleges in 
light of which it is desirable that every college review 
its own practices and products. No better training 
can be given students of English, journalism, political 
science, statistics, teaching, school management, etc., 
than to require them to participate in gleaning from 
this wealth of material concrete definite helps for a 
projected survey. 
10. So far as possible have administrative officers, division 
heads, faculty members, and students cooperate not 
only in analyzing and classifying information descrip- 
tive of field observations but also in making observa- 
tions and tests. To a g^reater extent than has yet been 
tried this will be found a good investment. Every 



32 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

field should be surveyed by those particular persons 
responsible for using the results of the survey. It is 
the man who first discovers a need who is apt to re- 
member it longer in more relations and to see it most 
clearly. It is vastly better for a department head to 
see at first hand that an instructor needs help or a 
course needs reorganization than to be convinced of 
these needs by a report from some one else. 

The use of students on surveys is considered questionable 
by many college officers. If, however, it is effective train- 
ing for students under direction to study public departments, 
factory management, social conditions, why is it not equally 
good training for students under direction to study college 
management, social conditions at college, use of college 
space per student hour, college costs, college accounting, 
college purchasing methods, and college budget making? 

Dean E. E. Jones of the College of Education at North- 
western University is employing students to analyze student 
mortality; student failures; student examination papers. 
Bryn Mawr, Yale, and Smith have employed students to 
study costs of living at college. Numerous colleges and 
universities for economic reasons employ scholarship stu- 
dents for all manner of useful service, from waiting on 
table or carrying mail to examining papers and teaching 
classes. What is workable for economic reasons is equally 
workable for educational reasons, especially when student 
help in self -surveying would reduce survey costs. 

II. Report "High Spots'' and "Low Spots" Separately 

Among America's great men identified with higher educa- 
tion is one who is rioted for cheating himself at golf. For 
his psychology most of us can from our own desires and 
prejudices furnish at least one counterpart. There is many 
a mother who wants her children to learn to swim without 
going near the water, or whose one reason for not taking 
her child to a doctor is fear that the doctor will find ade- 
noids requiring an operation. If college officers confess to 



m 


ifr^ 


. 


^^^"' 


4i' '^-iMJ^*^ ^rjf 


S^Ej^M^'i^lP H 


a^^- 


^m 


3dH... 



These two views of field work in biology and physiography by 
students of the University of North Dakota suggest universally 
accepted methods of illuminating natural science instruction. For 
vitalizing the social sciences and literature, logic, etc., doing what 
needs to be done and what will be used is still too little employed 




Surveying would vitalize many subjects 



Separate High Spots from Low Spots 33 

natural feelings, they will prefer to have any deficiencies 
come to them, not isolated, but imbedded among excel- 
lences. 

Once concede this point, once agree that no " low spot " 
shall be mentioned except in connection with '* high spots," 
which also means no " high spots " separately from " low 
spots," and college officers have made it extremely difficult, 
when not impossible, for themselves to be helped by survey 
findings. 

With attempts to segregate " low spots " from " high 
spots " I have had several experiences. Once where only 
" high spots " were listed, surveyors were met with this 
question by an influential magazine : " Will this make the 
public less discontented with its present schools? If so, we 
are against it." In another case, where excellences were 
printed first and conditions needing correction printed later, 
we were severely and editorially criticized. Our list of 
" high spots " was called " whitewash," even " hog wash," 
and was declared to present insuperable obstacles to profit 
from the survey. On the other hand, the list of conditions 
needing correction was declared to be unbalanced, unfair, im- 
properly motivated, because the excellences were not with 
them. 

Whether the materials which a survey studies and de- 
scribes are to be segregated in a way which is called sci- 
entific when ore is being assayed, sputum being analyzed for 
bacteria, or food and water for chemical impurities, is a 
question that must be answered for surveyors and self -sur- 
veyors before they begin their studies. Repeated refer- 
ences will be made to this in later sections under survey 
questions and technique. Two illustrations will here de- 
velop the issue. 

Professor A is brilliant, banal, brutal, well informed; 
sometimes he is definite and concise; at other times he is 
verbose, indefinite, and bombastic. Shall a survey attempt 
to say brilliant and bombastic, definite and indefinite, so as 
to "strike an average"? Shall it report that while he is 
at times indefinite nevertheless at other times he is definite ? 



34 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Or shall it report facts which prove that Professor A needs 
the help of his colleagues and supervisors to correct to the 
point of elimination a tendency to be banal, brutal, indefi- 
nite, verbose, bombastic? 

On the business side, there are two dormitories: one 
earns $2000 a year profit; one loses $2000 a year. Shall 
the survey report the two dormitories as self-sustaining or 
shall it report that dormitory B loses $2000 a year in face 
of the fact that dormitory A is so managed as to gain $2000 
a year? 

When the business world has a survey by insiders or out- 
siders, it carefully segregates excellences from deficiencies. 
On the excellences it spends no time except to learn whether 
conditions are favorable to their protection and extension. 
It is out of the deficiencies, separately listed, that it reaps 
its profit from a survey. So will colleges come to demand 
the segregation of " high spots " and " low spots.'* 

12. The Limits of Comparative Studies 

Before the University of Wisconsin survey began, the 
president expressed the hope that we would make widely 
comparative studies; i.e., comparisons between Wisconsin 
and other leading universities. When asked if he was will- 
ing to concede the results of comparisons between the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, he 
began at once to cite differences that must be taken into 
account. These allowances and cautions soon showed that 
no comparative statement based upon anything short of the 
minutest possible field study of each institution would be 
accepted by Wisconsin as valid. It was admitted that it 
would be more helpful to Wisconsin to have what Wis- 
consin was accomplishing compared with what Wisconsin 
was undertaking and with what Wisconsin needed. 

Only where the purpose of a survey is to rank colleges is 
comparison between colleges indispensable. In other cases 
comparison may establish a presumption; may raise ques- 
tions; may give encouragement; may gratify or pique local 
pride ; but not until it is shown that the other colleges with 



Questions or Notes 35 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



36 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

which the surveyed college is compared are satisfactorily 
fitting the needs and capacities of their own students and 
localities does comparison help answer the most vital ques- 
tion of every survey; viz., how our college is doing what 
it might and should do. 

Obviously a college may lead all other colleges and still 
fall far short of its own possibilities and obligations. 

Take, for example, the chart on page 141 showing non- 
use of a classroom at Vassar. A comparative study would 
disclose that in many colleges many rooms are used fewer 
hours a week than this room; viz., 18 hours, or 50% of 
the scheduled possible hours at Vassar. 

Such comparative information will be interesting and 
relevant so far as the survey had no utilitarian reason for 
asking its question about use, partial use, and non-use of 
that room, but with few exceptions the reason for asking 
this question is: need for additional space. That another 
college gets less use out of equivalent space does not help 
our college decide whether it can get more use out of this 
space. 

The comparative study most needed by colleges is study 
of each college against a background of its own students, 
conditions, difficulties, and opportunities. 

Another reason why as yet comparative studies are 
hardly worth the space required to print them in survey 
reports is that the printed reports from which they are 
taken do not use a common language. In other words, 
most comparative studies must for some time to come be 
secondary comparisons of unlike and therefore incomparable 
original facts. For not even the number of students or the 
per capita cost of college instruction can trustworthy com- 
parisons be made in 191 6 between even the leading uni- 
versities of the country or of New York City. 

By the time administrative surveys and scientific man- 
agement have overcome this serious deficiency, most colleges 
will have become so engrossed in self-study that they will 
worry infinitely less about their ranking away from home 
than about the adequateness of their service at home. 



Making Cooperation Easy . 37 

13. Survey Technique 

In Self -Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools several 
chapters were given to the technique of making a survey. 
The detailed steps are not repeated here. The topics cov- 
ered include these : 

Starting a survey. 

Dispelling controversies with facts. 

Securing cooperation. 

Deciding upon scope. 

Deciding what particular questions to ask. 

Having those who sponsor the survey also sponsor 

the particular questions asked by the survey. 
Fitting questions to different audiences. 
Guaranteeing the anonymity of answers. 
Guarding confidential statements. 

Importance of field work. 
Checking written work. 
Making tabulation easy. 
Making the survey report. 

Monopoly of benefit from a survey is just as anti-social 
as monopoly of water power or of eggs. Wherever sur- 
veyors and and self-surveyors ask questions about a faculty 
without letting the faculty know in time so that it can ask 
the same questions about itself, the result will be as unsat- 
isfactory as results from any other monopoly. It is the 
asking and studying and not the reading about or listening 
to a survey report which will benefit a college. 

The minute it is decided to democratize the planning, 
questioning, and studying of a survey, it becomes neces- 
sary to adopt a procedure which several people can simul- 
taneously employ. It is extravagant to have unwritten ques- 
tions, unwritten answers, private conversations. Instead it 
becomes necessary to exclude from consideration facts 
which cannot be seen by both surveyor and surveyed. 



38 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Even if a man is surveying himself, it is more profitable 
to be concrete and consecutive in questioning and answering. 

If two or more persons or the same person on two or 
more occasions are to deal with survey findings, then the 
most efficient technique is needed of factoring questions, of 
recording things of a kind in a column or on a page, and 
of marking tabulation sheets to economize effort. These 
are treated in Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools. 
Criticisms or modifications of technique there suggested will 
be welcomed by the authors. 

Ten of the cardinal elements of survey technique are 
listed, because college-survey questions and reports indicate 
that they need special emphasis : 

1. Answering should be made as easy as possible; e.g., 
wherever a check (V) can be made to answer writing 
should never be required. In succeeding chapters fre- 
quently blanks will be found for checking by the 
reader. 

2. Questions should be so worded as to " fetch " the 
answer sought; e.g., it helps little to ask. Are instruc- 
tors experienced ? It helps much to know where, how 
much, and what the experience of each instructor was. 

3. So far as can be anticipated, alternative answers 
should be typed or printed with the questions, always 
with room for '' others." Where one answerer may 
thus be influenced to check an item of which he would 
not think independently, ten others will answer com- 
pletely, where otherwise they would answer incom- 
pletely. 

4. Questions should be broken into their elements and 
a special answer required for each part of each ques- 
tion, and tabulation sheets marked for recording only 
one kind of fact about each activity in one column. 

5. Later tabulation or summary uses of questions should 
be considered when the questions are being framed. 

6. In tabulation, every part of every question should be 
accounted for in the report. 





STATED INSTRUCTION 


-GRADING, 


ETC.— 


Summary pp. 


3-6, 


29. 


35 




No. Col. Dept. 


Rank Sub. 




Course 


Resp. 


Hr«. 
per 
week 


No. Students who are 


No. Students in Class 






C 


P 


A 


B 


C 


D 


Grad. 


Sr3. 


in. 


Soph. 


'resh. 


Sp'l 


Not 
<n'n 


Total 


Credit 


Con'd 


Inc. 


Failed 


Drop'd 


Discipline 












































Yes No 

□ D 












































Cases 


















































































































































































Uniform 


Ex. 




Final Exam. 


Weight of 


Students Failed 


Individ'l Attention 


Grading 
Yes No 


G. 




Yes 


No 


No Ex 


Why 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


f 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


f 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


f 


ULL 

Why 1 


F. 
















































P. 
















































Rec. Att. 
Yes No 

nu 


Inc. 




State Positions 


Dates 


City Positions 


Dates 


KVI 


1 3 


4 


5 


6 


a 


Typical Services 


Con. 


























Fid. 



















































































IV 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


B 


V 


A 


B 


3 


2 


C 


D 


Tot. 


E 


1 


VI 


1 


a 


2 


3 


A 
















































a 


4 


a 


b 


5 


a 


6 


7 


a 


b 


8 


a 


9 


10 


11 


12 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


VII 


a 


1 












































1 






b 


1 


c 


1 


d 


1 


e 


1 


f 


1 


S 


1 


h 


1 


2 


a 


1 


2 


b 


1 


2 


3 


4 


• 5 


















































3 


a 


b 


4 


5 


a 


b 


VIII 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 




IX 


1 


2 


3 


a 


4 


a 


5 


a 


b 
















































_ 


X 


1 


2 


a 


3 


a 


XI 


1 


2 


3 


4 


a 


5 


a 


XII 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


XIII 


1 


a 


2 


















































a 


b 


3 


4 


5 


6 


a 


b 


7 


XV 


1 


a 


2 


a 


3 


a 


b 


4 


5 


XVI 


1 


2 


XVII 


^ 


















































b 


c 


d 


e 


f 


XIX 


1 


a 


b 


2 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


3 


a 


b 


4 


a 


b 


XX 


a 


,-b 



















































Making Analysis Easy 39 

7. A space for number not answering should be pro- 
vided for recording answers to every part of every 
question. 

8. Coding answers and applying the Hollerith tabulat- 
ing-card principle, as per the card here inserted, which 
was used in the Wisconsin survey, will greatly sim- 
plify handling otherwise incomparable material. 

9. Working papers should be clearly marked to show 
the purposes of each sheet and each column; dates 
taken and finished; and initials of all persons re- 
sponsible for entering, checking, and supervising. 

10. Averaging should be treated like the plague: in fact, 
the number of units of each kind should be sepa- 
rately counted and with few exceptions separately con- 
sidered. 

Cautions for College Surveyors 

1. Avoid unnecessary delays. 

2. Avoid a campaign year. 

3. Agree upon procedure before starting. 

4. Keep a diary of survey progress. 

5. Ask pay-as-you-go questions. 

6. Take plenty of time for outlining. 

7. Ask every one to submit suggestions. 

8. Use a general questionnaire. 

9. Secure college help in framing questionnaire. 

10. Use loose sheet questionnaire. 

11. Assort and number all returns. 

12. File ranks and divisions separately. 

13. Note answerer's degree of responsibility. 

14. Provide key numbers to insure anonymity. 

15. Have time used in answering questions reported. 

16. Leave blank space for answers. 

17. List all alternative answers anticipated. 

18. Have separate heads for each type of fact. 

19. Provide a " Don't know " column or space. 

20. Promise confidential treatment. 



40 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

21. Welcome anonymous complaints. 

22. Insure time necessary for writing up results. 

23. Account for every part of every answer. 

24. Provide a consolidated key card for answers. 

25. Key each answer. 

26. Review and revise tabulation plan. 

2y. Insure criticism of schedules and questions. 

28. Record each fact separately. 

29. Avoid averages. 

30. Keep and check current working papers. 

31. Have conference of investigators. 

32. Have frequent conferences of survey staff. 

33. Have question and suggestion slips for staff. 

34. Supervise survey details in progress. 

35. Record cumulatively errors and omissions. 

36. Budget publicity plans. 

37. Avoid cooperation that restricts. 

38. Submit reports to surveyed before publishing. 

39. Publish if at all in small doses. 

40. Use graphic methods wherever possible. 

14. Educational Scapegoats 

Being human, colleges attribute difficulties and disap- 
pointments to causes beyond their own control. Each col- 
lege has its favorite causes and points to them so frequently 
that they become scapegoats. Sometimes it is the elective 
system; or again the relaxation of the language require- 
ments; or the so-called practical courses; or lenient mark- 
ing or low entrance requirements; or poor high schools; 
or coeducation; or poor home background; or the alleged 
mistaken American doctrine that every person is entitled to 
as many years of instruction as he can pay for or sit 
through. 

Self -surveys will profitably ask early what the favorite 
scapegoats are of the faculty and officers. The list of scape- 
goats will suggest a number of questions which can be an- 
swered by analyzing conditions at the college. Having 



All the World Loves a Scapegoat 41 

eliminated all causes for disappointment or difficulty that 
are college-born and are therefore correctable by college ac- 
tion, surveyors will find a margin, large or small, of out-of- 
college scapegoats. In most instances college policy is so 
completely within college control that out-of -college scape- 
goats will give little trouble after college scapegoats have 
been studied and divided into removable and non-removable 
obstructions to efficiency. 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



Ill 

RELATION OF TRUSTEES TO PRESIDENT AND 

FACULTY 

15. Self 'Survey by Trustees 

THE main question here is whether trustees ask for 
and secure the quantity and kind of information that 
is necessary for them to possess if they are to act for the 
best interest of their college. 

That the only good trustee is the blind trustee has been 
believed by many college administrators and instructors. 
In fact, a cult has been growing, under the chaperonage of 
certain large foundations, which would relegate trustees to 
three tasks, — raising money, selecting carefully an execu- 
tive, and leaving the college management to him. Another 
cult has sprung up from within faculties which would take 
from trustees practically all functions except that of raising 
money. 

Surveyors of private colleges will as a rule not be com- 
missioned to ask questions about how trustees discharge 
their duties toward president and faculty, but any questions 
about how president and faculty discharge their obligations 
toward trustees and constituents will be permissible and wel- 
come. For personal help there is every reason why trustees 
as a body or individually should see that these questions are 
answered. In fact, one of the principal needs of American 
colleges is that trustees shall begin self -surveys of their 
own efficiency. 

1. Are trustee agreements with president and faculty 
specific in writing? Yes. No. f . . . Are the 
president's understandings with faculty submitted to 
trustees in writing? Y , . , N . . . ? . . . 

2. Do trustees receive a calendar far enough in advance 
of meetings for them to digest it? F. . . N.,. 
? . . . 

3. Are digests of reports sent to trustees in advance of 

42 



Trustees Will Self -Survey Too 43 

meetings when they are to be considered ? Y . . , 
N... ?,., 

4. Are reports to trustees condensed and graphic? 
y. . . N . . , f . . . President Godfrey of Drexel 
Institute makes his reports via crayon talks, using a 
graph instead of a sentence whenever possible. 

5. Are the other elements of efficient reporting men- 
tioned later observed by the president and fac- 
ulty when presenting facts and policies to trustees? 
Y . , , N. , , f . . . Or are they given " only what 
the president chooses to give them " ? Y . . . N . . , 
? 

• • • • 

6. What interim reports and significant information as 
to college problems, results, and successes are sent to 
trustees ? 

7. In what ways and at what times do trustees meet the 
faculty, especially new faculty members? Is their 
talk with the faculty ** small talk of a patronizing 
sort with weak attempts at humor " ? F. . . A/". . . 

8. What steps are taken to insure a sympathetic under- 
standing of classroom, laboratory, and seminar prob- 
lems by trustees ; e.g., in what ways are they encour- 
aged to see faculty members at work with students? 
Is their effort limited to " Back up the president. . . . 
The king can do no wrong " ? Y , . , N , , , 

9. How easy or how difficult is it for trustees to be ig- 
norant of or to misunderstand the attainment of fac- 
ulty members in productive scholarship; in educa- 
tional leadership; in community service; in influence 
upon students? 

10. Is trustee enthusiasm loaded with understanding and 
information before set to raising funds? Y.., 
N.., f . . . Or do they "get information about 
the university in a way comparable to the way small 
boys learn about sex matters"? F. . . N,,. 
? . . . 

For state-supported colleges it is indispensable that such 
questions be asked by both special and current surveys. 



44 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Uninformed or misinformed regents can incalculably injure 
student, faculty, and taxpayer. No publicly supported uni- 
versity is strong enough to afford regents who fail to ask 
questions, to require answers, and to hold themselves re- 
sponsible for remembering and for imparting the answers 
to legislators and public. 

1 6. National Conventions for Trustees 

There are over 5000 trustees of colleges and universities 
in this country. They are responsible for $800,000,000 of 
property and for the annual expenditure of $120,000,000. 
What is more to the point, they are primarily responsible 
for the way higher education is headed and for the use of 
its opportunity. Yet never in the history of higher educa- 
tion has there been a gathering of these trustees or a gather- 
ing to which trustees have been invited, nor has any device 
been worked out by which they can communicate with one 
another, ask questions, and exchange experience. 

How we could have developed innumerable associations 
of educators, professional men, and college athletes without 
having found a niche for the college trustee is hard to under- 
stand. 

There must be a change. The need for it has been felt 
for some time and is now being expressed. On December 
22, 191 6, the regents of the University of Michigan took up 
formally the question whether they should extend to college 
trustees and university regents an invitation to hold a first 
convention at Detroit. Once having seriously considered 
the advantages of comparing notes, of exchanging ques- 
tions, of cooperatively studying policies involving funds 
and opportunities, the trustee group will insist upon inde- 
pendent means of informing itself. 

When national conventions have been organized, a sur- 
veyor will do well to ask how many and how often the re- 
gents of any college surveyed have attended national con- 
ventions, and what steps they have taken to see that their 
own college was represented by problems to be discussed 
and questions to be answered, and furthermore what steps 



Questions or Notes 45 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



4^ Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

they have taken to utilize convention proceedings locally. 

Ex-President Trottman of the regents of the University 
of Wisconsin has for years urged the incongruity of the 
trustees' status, and compares it to the unthinkable situa- 
tion of railroad directors shut out of transportation con- 
ventions. 

Of a national convention for trustees, President Burton 
writes : 

" I am particularly interested in your suggestion of 
a conference of the regents of state universities and 
trustees of colleges. Surely there is genuine occasion 
for such conferences. I imagine it would stimulate 
the interest and make the problems of educational in- 
stitutions far more tangible and appealing to those who 
are responsible for our institutions if they came to- 
gether and discussed the problems." 

17. College Organization 

To learn who's who and what's what about a college the 
shortcut is to secure a chart showing the distribution of 
powers and duties and the interrelations of trustees and of- 
ficers. This the college authorities will prepare. Don't pay 
surveyors to do it. Its purpose is to help the study, not to 
encumber the report. 

Except so far as legislatures or donors have prescribed 
distribution of powers and duties, the board of trustees is 
legally and morally responsible to society for the working 
conditions in colleges. If there is confusion or conflict of 
authority, if duties and powers are vague, if no one is ever 
unevadably accountable, if the machinery is antiquated and 
feeble, the trustees are at fault. Even where faculties have 
inadvisedly used the powers vested in them, the fault lies 
with the trustees. 

Several different forms of organization are found which 
express as many different beliefs about centralization and de- 
centralization of authority. It is not safe for surveyors to 
be dogmatic about forms of organization, for as Pope says. 



Trustees Will Study Organization 47 

" Whatever is best administered is best." 

If Efficiency says, " Elect the ablest man for department 
chairman," Democracy replies via President Mezes, " The 
department should be the unit and the chairman only a 
presiding officer and spokesman." 

In some colleges the business manager should be re- 
sponsible to the president. In others this is impossible with- 
out changing presidents, which may not be desirable yet. 
Here the deans are wisely elected by their faculties; there 
the deans are chosen by presidents ; elsewhere the deans are 
best chosen by trustees. 

One dogmatic statement, however, can safely be made, — 
that whatever the form of organization or the distribution 
of authority, there should be no uncertainty or duplication 
of accountability. 

18. Written Agreements with Faculty 

Much unhappiness in college circles has been due to dif- 
fering recollections of verbal agreements. The president 
or dean or department head remembers that Professor A 
was promised nothing but '* the best the college could do." 
Professor A remembers a definite promise of change in 
rank, increase in salary, only eight hours of instruction, 
freedom from quizzes, opportunity for research, special va- 
cations, etc. 

1. With respect to how many agreements between offi- 
cers and faculty has your college been making written 
record ? 

2. Are the invitation and its terms in writing? Y . , . 
N,.. 

3. Is the acceptance in writing? F. . . N. . . 

4. Are subsequent changes of terms in writing? Y . . , 
N... 

5. Which officers believe that written agreements would 
handicap them in making discriminations between ex- 



48 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ceptional ability and average ability or exceptional 
desirability and average desirability? 

There have been college officers who were successful in 
attracting unusual ability to their colleges which would 
never have come if the agreements had been in writing. In 
other words, men attracted by hopes, inferences, and words 
open to double construction, would not have been attracted 
by cold, written, unequivocal agreements. Whether net 
benefit can result from such misunderstandings is an im- 
portant question; especially for self-surveyors. 

For the University of Minnesota, the president's office 
keeps a record of " promises, assurances of promotion, or of 
salary increases." 

Pratt Institute's instructors agree, in writing, to be avail- 
able for committee work or " for any work in connection 
with the social life or activities at the Institute." More- 
over, faculty members " are expected to care for their health 
and take such recreation as is necessary for its preserva- 
tion." Service is by the year and instructors may be 
" called upon any time during vacations." They are ex- 
pected to be present, prepared for work, at least one week 
before classes open; to carry a minimum of not less than 
20 hours a week in classroom work; and to exceed this in 
cases where less outside preparation is required *' than it 
is usual to expect for classroom instruction." Instructors 
must teach in the evening classes if called upon, and ** no 
instructor giving full time to the Institute is permitted to 
engage in any other teaching unless by special agreement 
with the trustees." The Institute promises to pay one 
month's salary in case of sickness, during which it may 
call upon the instructor to pay his substitute. After one 
month it is not bound to pay for sick leave. 

An incipient scandal was started against the University 
of Pennsylvania in 19 16 because of a letter written by the 
dean of the Wharton School, which required that all faculty 
members notify the dean of out-of -university engagements. 
The circular sent to the faculty read in part : 



Outside Work by Faculty 49 

"What other establishments, private or public, are 
you connected with at present which have the right to 
a portion of your time for which you receive fee, sal- 
ary, or honorarium ? 

" What committee or commissions of a public nature 
are you connected with at present, with or without re- 
muneration ? 

" All members of the instruction staff are requested 
to understand that hereafter no relations of the sort 
included in the above questions shall be established, 
nor shall old ones be renewed, without first consulting 
with the dean, in order that, where necessary, the ap- 
proval of the provost or trustees may be requested." 

Morris Llewellyn Cooke intimated in a speech at Cleveland 
which was printed broadcast that this might prove a muz- 
zling device for preventing free speech; i.e., corporations 
might thus make it impossible for faculty members with pro- 
gressive ideas to keep the speaking engagements or the com- 
mittee connections necessary to promote such progressive 
ideas. I was interviewed by a Philadelphia newspaper, 
which told me after I had stated my position that it had ex- 
pected a different position from the following : 

The Pennsylvania order was not limited to the Wharton 
School. On the contrary, all deans united in issuing it. 
Several deans imparted the information orally which gave 
opportunity for discussion and promoted understanding. 
It seems that members of the Pennsylvania faculty had been 
accepting regular appointments as far away as Baltimore 
and New York. Some had broken down physically for no 
other discoverable reason except that they were trying to do 
too much. The university naturally felt that it had the first 
claim upon instructors' energy. It seemed fairer to raise 
the question before incompatible and too exacting engage- 
ments were entered into, rather than wait for a breakdown 
in efficiency and health, or even for minor evidences of in- 
jury suffered because of energy diverted from the university 
to other obligations. 



50 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

So far as anti-social activities of faculty members are 
concerned, it is obvious that the public v^ill be protected and 
not injured by a college requirement that the out-of -college 
activities of instructors shall be matter of record with the 
college. For the same reason that when accustoming a 
horse to city diversions and dangers blinders are taken off 
the bridle, it is safer that blinders be taken off one's col- 
leagues and the public with regard to out-of -college rela- 
tions of instructors. Infinitely more damage will result 
from unfounded suspicion than from recorded fact. 

Without written agreement another general evil will 
never be under control ; viz., absences by presidents, deans, 
directors, department heads, and favored instructors. Be- 
cause regulations and agreements do not specifically charge 
the college officer to account for his time, neither trustees 
nor executive officers can easily interfere when absences are 
overdone. Not knowing how much officers are away from 
duty, colleges of course cannot estimate what absences cost. 
Self-surveys will note these facts : 

1. What printed regulations say about the number of 
days that belong to the college. 

2. What unwritten or written understandings exempt 
individuals from the general rules. 

3. What is defined as absent for executive officer or in- 
structor, — whether physical absence or only failure 
to have a representative in charge or failure to have 
anticipated absence as by " making up " time. 

4. How absences are notified; e.g., in advance? ...; 
by request ? . . . ; as information ? . . . ; in monthly or 
weekly report ? . . . ; to department head ? . . . ; to 
dean? . .,. 

5. How absences are summarized, times, duration, ap- 
pointments missed for year, semester, department, in- 
dividuals. 

6. How reasons and occasions for absence are sum- 
marized; i.e., departmental, college, by assignment, 
by request, personal. 



Questions or Notes 51 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



52 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

7. How benefits and losses from absences are estimated 
and reported. 

Whether attempts to secure such information will stultify 
and mortify educators can be told only after attempts have 
been made. There is reason to believe that academic free- 
dom will be enhanced, not desecrated, by agreements which 
require all officers to record for all the extent and causes 
of absence. 

19. By-laws and Laws 

College trustees not only make their own laws and regula- 
tions, but approve or reject procedure adopted by faculties 
for themselves. In cases where it is not practicable for sur- 
veyors to catechize or criticize the governing board, it may 
still be accepted as helpful if they ask the governing board 
to join with them in reviewing by-laws. 

The University of Wisconsin survey took up the by-laws 
and laws of regents, page by page. In the hope of inter- 
esting regents and officers in thinking over each step, ques- 
tions were submitted. Oftentimes a governing board will 
meet the surveyor on common ground if the latter instead 
of giving advice asks a question ; i.e., " Page 59, line 2 : 
Would it help to have a clause added to the effect that the 
regents' report be audited by the business manager as to 
correctness of statistics? " 

What have by-laws and other rules of procedure to do 
with helpful surveys ? A great deal more than appears on 
the surface. In colleges as well as in states many ethical 
gains are accomplished through legislation. Inherited rules 
may crystallize action unfavorable to elasticity and initia- 
tive. New rules may foster initiative and elasticity. In 
many colleges present procedure divides responsibility where 
concentration and definite location are desirable. Ambigui- 
ties cause little trouble until some important issue calls 
for clearness. Existing organization is usually defined in 
existing rules. Where surveyors point out defects in or- 
ganization, recommend changes or additions, it is important 



Trustees Will Question By-laws 53 

to see whether the rules permit changes and reflect the de- 
ficient organization. 

Other questions, particularly for self -surveyors, include 
these : 

1 . Are the rules printed ? Yes . . . No . . . 

2. Who is supposed to have them? 

3. Are sections reprinted so that each group need have 
only those parts which affect its actions ? Y, . . 
N.,. 

4. Are rules consulted by legislative bodies ? Y. . , 
iV. . . (I once heard a board of trustees discuss for 
an hour a question which might have been settled in 
one minute if they had consulted their own regula- 
tions. ) 

5. Are there dead-letter regulations? How many? 
Which? 

6. Do the financial sections specify " receipts and dis- 
bursements " or " revenues and expenses " ; i.e., re- 
ceipts plus accruals and expenditures plus accruals f 

7. Do the rules require that committees of trustees and 
faculties keep minutes ? F . . . N. . . ? . .. Would 
it help to require that all minutes record at least the 
names of movers and seconders of motions and per- 
sons speaking for and against them? 

8. Should faculty minutes be required to record names 
of persons present? 

9. When referring to annual reports, should rules call 
for classification of information ; i.e., instead of call- 
ing for the "number of instructors and students,'* 
should they call for the number of instructors of 
each grade and number of students in each group, 
such as lower classmen, upper classmen, graduates, 
and special students in each department ? 

10. Is an outside audit required of financial transactions 
and accounts? F. . . AT... 

11. Would it be worth while to require an outside audit 
of operation reports and educational statistics ? 



54 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

12. Should requests for special meetings be required to 
state the purpose for which the meeting is called and 
subject or subjects to be considered, together with a 
digest of the facts which make a meeting seem neces- 
sary? 

13. Would it help secure definite service from trustees if 
the rules included among their duties that of reading 
official communications? 

14. Do colleges need regulations which require separation 
of salaries for instruction from salaries for research 
and for administration? 

15. Should regulations stipulate a definite minimum num- 
ber of hours for lecture and recitation, and an equiva- 
lent number for laboratory or mixed laboratory and 
classroom work, with provision that charges be made 
to the right accounts? 

16. When mentioning the duty of the president to make 
recommendations, should by-laws require that facts 
be submitted upon which recommendations are based ? 

17. Instead of charging a president or dean with the duty 
to report any inefficiency that may come to his knowl- 
edge, should by-laws require that executive officers 
make the investigations necessary to ascertain where, 
if at all, there is inefficiency? 

18. Is the line of responsibility definite so that sugges- 
tions and facts will come to each officer through re- 
sponsible subordinates ? y . . . A^ . . . f . . . 

19. Is provision made for receiving complaints, sugges- 
tions, and criticisms, including anonymous communi- 
cations? Y.., N.,. f... 

20. Has the time come to have by-laws specify the min- 
imum essentials of annual reports, if for no other 
reason than to charge trustees with responsibility for 
receiving and reading such minimum essentials? 

20. Investigations for Trustees 

In the early days of the University of Chicago, one of 
the most popular songs was entitled, The Profs Make Sttt- 



Investigations for Trustees 55 

dent Customs at the U. of C. The spirit and fact of this 
song might be parodied in another entitled, The Profs Make 
Trustee Reports in Universities. Investigations by college 
trustees too often result in investigations for trustees. For 
example, the board appoints a committee to investigate the 
efficiency of instruction for under classmen. Seldom does 
such a committee make its own investigation. Instead it 
calls in the president or dean, and he does the investigating ; 
drafts a tentative report; submits it to trustees; explains 
verbally why it is correct; and presto! his findings become 
the trustees' report. 

Ought this to be so? Will it always be so? Surveys 
will ask rather : Is it so? What can be done about it? 

When investigating for trustees — and they are in effect 
doing that whenever they make even routine reports — pres- 
ident and faculty either obey or disobey the laws of scientific 
investigation. Whichever they do, surveyors and self -sur- 
veyors should frankly answer questions like these : 

1. Does the investigation start with a desire to know? 
Is the right unit of inquiry sought? Is the count ac- 
curate? Are comparisons made? Are subtractions 
made and differences reduced to comparable fractions 
or percentages? Are returns classified and sum- 
marized ? 

2. Is the general question for investigation broken up 
into its various elements? 

3. Is each element segregated before being studied? 

4. Is the whole of each element examined or only a part ? 

5. Are all the essential facts about an element examined 
or only a few ? 

6. Are facts of record examined, or only opinions and 
guesses ? 

7. Are the facts properly classified and summaries sub- 
mitted to trustees apart from recommendations and 
as the basis for conclusions and recommendations ? 

8. Do conclusions square with the facts reported? 

9. Are the findings briefly summarized? 



56 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

10. Is the report sent to trustees for perusal before the 
meeting which acts upon it? 

The minutes of college trustees will show many questions 
investigated for them both upon their initiative and in ad- 
vance of their expression of interest. As more adequate 
information becomes available, the number of subjects in- 
vestigated for trustees will greatly increase, especially in 
colleges where trustees are helped to take each step of an 
investigation rather than merely to accept faculty conclu- 
sions. 

Typical of important questions to be studied everywhere 
is this : How efficient is the instruction received by under 
classmen, especially first-year students? In answering it a 
noticeable difference will be found between the method fol- 
lowed where president or faculty want additional instructors 
and where they want to refute criticisms such as that fresh- 
men are taught by less competent instructors and see too lit- 
tle of the older, stronger men. Obviously the information 
given the trustee ought not to depend upon the motive of 
those who investigate. Obviously, too, a procedure like the 
following will be necessary : 

1. The total registration of under classmen each year 
in each class will be given. Whether this ought to 
be the registration is not the question. 

2. The person teaching each class will be named — 
again a question of fact, not of ought or ought not. 

3. Registration totals will be redistributed in groups ac- 
cording to the titles of instructors. 

4. Because titles may not express previous teaching ex- 
perience, the registration totals must be redistributed 
further according to previous teaching experience. 

5. The summary will state what percentage of the total 
student hours for each of the two years under study 
are taught by instructors in each of the title groups 
and in each of the experience groups. 

6. Because thus far we have learned the facts about 
under classmen only, it is necessary to compare these 




RESIDENCE OF STUDENTS 

ENROLLED IN 

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

I9I4-I9I5 

LIVING WITHIN 50 MILES 

OF MADISON 1,770 

LIVING WITHIN 75 MILES 

OF MADISON 2,639 

LIVING WITHIN 100 MILES 

OF MADISON 2,961 

TOTAL LIVING IN WIS- 
CONSIN 3,644 



University of Wisconsin Survey Report 



Show graphically whence students come 



Facts, not Opinions, for Trustees 57 

facts with similar facts, for upper classmen to see 
what part of each instructor's time and each in- 
structor group's time is given to upper classmen ; what 
part to research or other duties; and further to see 
what part of the instruction and contact received by 
upper classmen is from each instructor group. 

With these facts in hand there still remains the most fun- 
damental question of all: Is the instruction received by 
under classmen efficient ? But because this is a fundamental 
question is no reason why trustees should not have an- 
swered for them definitely the question which starts the in- 
vestigation; viz., the total registration of under classmen 
each year in each class. 

Annual reports are beginning to reflect the highest type 
of scientific research by college officers. For example, in- 
stead of bewailing the poverty which compels overcrowding, 
a president shows how many hours in a week how many in- 
structors have a specified excess of students. Instead of 
vaguely protesting against untrue claims that instructors are 
underworked, presidents are beginning to report in detail 
the teaching loads and extra-teaching loads of faculty 
members. 

What kind of supporting information trustees received 
during the year preceding a survey or self -survey will be 
found a productive field for examination. Among investi- 
gations which should be currently made by and for trustees 
are these: Advance steps taken during the year; notable 
steps taken by other similar institutions and not yet tried 
here; benefits obtained from conventions attended; tests 
used and with what result, to see whether the college is ac- 
complishing what it aims and what it advertises to do. 

21. Visitation by Alumni and Other Visitors 

In theory trustees are official visitors. In practice 
trustees are apt to confine their visits to the offices of presi- 
dent and deans or to those particular segments of college 
machinery for which they have committee responsibility. 



58 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Few trustees consider themselves visitors with a roving 
commission to represent patron, student, and faculty. In- 
stead they come to feel that they represent the management. 

To insure some one's seeing the college " as ithers see it," 
many colleges have arranged for semiofficial visitors ; i.e., of- 
ficially invited visitation by alumni or special board. The 
University of Wisconsin has such official board of visitors : 
one third appointed by the alumni; one third by the gov- 
ernor; one third by the regents. In a short time official 
visitors come to know more phases of an institution than the 
trustees whose channels of information are practically con- 
fined to officers. Whether facts and suggestions from these 
quarters are welcomed or resented, heeded or neglected, by 
trustees and officers is an important survey question. 

In how many ways an official board may be helpful is 
illustrated by a list prepared by Mr. Lynn S. Pease, alumnus 
and lawyer, for Wisconsin's governor and legislature in 
191 5, when a central board of education was being debated: 

1. A course of practice as a substantial part of the cur- 
riculum of the law school. 

2. Closer relations between the faculty and students. 

3. More attention, in the employment of members of 
the faculty, to the personal equation and influence 
which will be exerted upon the students. 

4. A dean of men. 

5. Cooperation of the university and the state depart- 
ment of education with school principals and officers 
for the purpose of bridging the gap between high- 
school work and university work, and of stimulating 
and aiding the development of the entire public-school 
system. 

6. The adoption of a system similar to that success- 
fully used in some other universities for faculty, class, 
fraternity, sorority, and club student advisers. 

7. Instructional ability to be given as much weight as 
scholarship in selection of teaching members of the 
faculty. 



Questions for Official Visitors 59 

8. Fraternity and sorority rushing and initiation con- 
trolled. 

9. More attention to the physical instruction of all the 
students and less to the effort to build up a school 
of instruction in athletics. 

10. The principle of probation for first offenses in cases 
of so-called " dishonesty in student work " ; the elim- 
ination of the penalty of suspension of work and 
substitution of the penalty of additional work, etc. 

11. The elimination of undesirable pictures and reading 
matter in student publications. 

12. Student questionnaire issued. (See Exhibit III.) 

13. The separation of the men's and women's athletic ac- 
tivities and more attention to the needs of the women 
students. 

14. Inefficiency of the press bulletins shown. 

15. Investigations of incompetent or otherwise undesir- 
able members of the faculty. 

16. An assistant dean of women urged. 

The extension of central boards of education and the iso- 
lation of trustees make it increasingly important that col- 
leges, especially state-supported institutions, utilize the offi- 
cial visitor to the utmost. 

Experience in other fields shows that official visitors 
quickly become absorbed in the vortex of official acquaint- 
ance, unless they adopt for themselves a procedure which 
will answer no to each of the following 30 questions, which 
incidentally may prove equally helpful to trustees and sur- 
veyors : 

1. Have they stopped asking questions? F. . . N, . , 
f.... As soon as a visitor begins to answer questions 
without asking them, he becomes of little use as a vis- 
itor. 

2. Have they accepted the post of advocate for the ad- 
ministration ? F. . . iV... ?,., Visiting is a 
means of seeing whether the administration is leaving 
undone anything which students, public, and govern- 
ing board wish or need to have done. 



6o Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

3. Are they doing anything which administrative offi- 
cers ought to do ? F . . . N , , , f . . . Visitors 
often dissipate energy by inconsequential dabbling 
with matters that administrative officers know about, 
or by doing poorly what administrative officers ought 
to be made to do well as soon as it becomes obvious 
what should be done. 

4. Are they afraid to ask questions because they do not 
know the answer? 

5. Are they afraid to make suggestions for fear they 
will prove unsound? A suggestion does not need to 
be one hundred per cent sound in order to be helpful. 

6. Do they stay on as visitors a day after they begin to 
feel like insiders rather than outsiders? 

7. Do they fail to use students and faculty for securing 
information? Y, , , AT. . . f . . . A notable con- 
tribution to higher education was made by the Wis- 
consin board of visitors when they asked 6000 stu- 
dents to answer questions about their high-school and 
university experiences. 

8. Do they jump to the defensive and become apologists 
the minute some unofficial visitor — student, in- 
structor, editor, business man, or surveyor — points 
out a weakness or makes a suggestion? Criticism 
and suggestion are valuable as criticism is true and 
suggestion sound, no matter what their source. 

9. Do they forget that one of the principal duties of an 
intelligent regent is to be an efficient inside visitor? 
Their reports can help regents see this. 

10. Do they keep institutional secrets from their client, 
the public, F. . . iV. . . f..., or board of trustees, 
F. . . N.,» .^. .., or administrative officers, F. . . 
AT , ? ? 

11. Do they suppress the truth or postpone its publica- 
tion for fear that some one will make improper use 
of it? F. . . iV. . . F. , , The time to report is 
when visitors secure the information. The office of 
visitor will be less misused if now and then an un- 



Keeping Visitors' Eyes Open 6i 

timely fact escapes than if visitors try to decide what 
is the right time to report. 

12. Do they fail to follow up any fact, complaint, or sug- 
gestion coming from student, parent, or faculty mem- 
ber? 

13. Do they spoil criticisms or recommendations by 
"mushy" introduction and conclusion and qualify- 
ing phrases? y... A/"... 

14. Do they fail to keep complete record of what and 
whom they have seen and of the facts upon which 
they base recommendations? F. . . N . . , f , . , 

15. Do they lament the fact that as visitors they are visit- 
ing and reporting officers and not governors? 

16. Do they fail to make the minority of a visiting com- 
mittee feel comfortable and free to express its mi- 
nority opinion? 

17. Do they fail to report the minority opinion together 
with the majority opinion? F. . . N... ?.., 

18. Do they suppress a criticism or suggestion because 
only a minority makes it ? 

19. Do they specialize ? Visitors are most effective when 
they are general practitioners. There may be divi- 
sion of labor without specialization. 

20. Do they desire reappointment ? " Once a visitor al- 
ways a visitor" is a denial of the very purpose of 
visiting. Acquaintance blunts sensibilities, displaces 
questions. 

21. Do they fail to be specific in praise and criticism? 
Y N ^ 

22. Do they fail to keep a cumulative list of questions 
that have been asked and answered ? Y . , . N . , , 
? . . . 

23. Do they fail to keep a cumulative calendar of prob- 
lems that need future attention ? F . . . N . . , 
f. . . 

24. Do they fail to read current reports of faculty min- 
utes and of college officers and principal student 
papers ? 



62 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

25. Are they disappointed if their reports are considered 
disagreeable at first and if attempt is made to smile 
away their facts and recommendations? 

26. Do they allow themselves to be patronized by the per- 
sons whose work they are to observe ? Y . . , N , , , 
f. . . 

2^, Do they let college officers write their reports? 

28. Do they fail to make the asking of questions about 
other colleges an important part of visiting their own 
college? y... iV... f... 

29. Are they satisfied with general explanations or gen- 
eral promises in answer to specific criticisms? F. . . 
N ^ . 

30. Do they withdraw attention from a need before the 
right steps have been taken to remedy the defect or 
supply the deficiency ? Y . . , N . . . f . . . 

22. Granting of Honorary Degrees 

This will strike many as a strange subject for self -sur- 
veys. Yet upon analysis it will be found to have an im- 
portant bearing upon many other college relations. A list 
of persons who have been given honorary degrees with rea- 
sons announced and unannounced will raise a number of 
questions : 

1. How many when honored by our college already held 
honorary degrees from other colleges? 

2. Has our college formulated minimum essentials of 
personality, scholarly distinction, social service or 
service to the college which will establish eligibility 
to a degree? F. . . AT... f,., 

3. Have degrees been given out by favor, ... by acci- 
dent, ... or by comprehensive educational pro- 
gram ? . . . 

4. How many persons are there, men and women, be- 
longing to the constituency of this college whose at- 
tainments exceed the minimum for eligibility? 

5. Is it legitimate for a college to use its degree-giving 



Tenure — Permanent or Limited? 63 

power as a means of binding such eligible persons 
to its program? V.,. N... ?.,. 

A college president was asked to consider granting an 
honorary degree to an alumnus who had rendered distin- 
guished service to education. Among educators his name 
was more widely and favorably known than that of any 
person to whom this college had ever given an honorary 
degree or of any instructor. Degrees were later given t(-) 
several former instructors as testimonials of gratitude for 
help in putting this college on a firm foundation. Was an 
opportunity lost when the college failed to reccjgnize excep- 
tional work for education by (jne of its own products? 

23. Tenure of OiTice 

Charting college offices so as to show the actual past ten- 
ure and nominal future tenure of each will help faculties 
consider several questions that are beginning to assert them- 
selves : 

1. Should presidents and deans be elected for life sub- 
ject to good behavior and efficiency, or for definite 
terms up to seven years? 

2. Was President Nichol's action prophetic when he re- 
tired from Dartmouth's presidency after seven years 
on the ground that he had already given his best, and 
that seven years of a new man would do mcjre for 
his college than seven more years of him? 

3. Where terms are limited — to three or five or seven 
years — will it often be better for presidents or deans 
or trustees to succeed themselves? 

4. What evidence is there that officers seldom rise to 
new heights when permanent tenure is a substitute for 
limited tenure? 

5. Once given a method of learning whether a college 
would be better off without than with an instructor, 
what percentage of instructors would be willing to 
remain if not for the good of the college? 



64 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

In many instances instructors are separated from college 
positions for personal or financial reasons entirely apart 
from college welfare. A list of faculty changes with rea- 
sons for each will show how far curable working conditions, 
curable financial limitations, or curable defects of organiza- 
tion and personality have been defeating nominal provisions 
for permanent or extended tenure of instructors and officers. 

Permanent tenure for college teachers is a cardinal tenet 
of the American Association of College Professors. The 
same movement urges rotation for departmental chairmen 
and is beginning to wonder if permanent tenure for deans 
and presidents may not perhaps jeopardize permanence of 
tenure and academic freedom for teachers. In 191 5 Illi- 
nois' efficiency commission recommended three years for 
deans. Many colleges feel that department heads ought not 
to have more than two years unless they frankly abandon 
the pretense of representing their departments and accept 
the role of sub-executive. 

The best tenure for any college can best be learned by 
studying that college's situation when vacancies next occur. 
In the meantime, holdover or inveterate or permanent ex- 
ecutives may well help their faculties ask these questions: 

1. Are departments which have had several chairmen 
in ten years more vital, initiative, progressive, dem- 
ocratic, than other departments which have had only 
one or two? F... iV... f . . . 

2. Are elected chairmen more representative of their 
faculties and less servile to dean or president than 
appointed chairmen ? F . . . N . , , ? . , , 

3. Are ex officio or inevitable chairmen — i.e., where 
there is only one full professor — less progressive 
than elected chairmen? Y . , , N, . , ? . , , 

4. Do departments feel compelled to reelect their senior 
members or other members sensitive because of self- 
conscious weakness or of fear that rotation would 
mean dissatisfaction? Y . . , N . . . f,,, 

5. Does a new dean always effect improvements ? 



Questions or Notes 65 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



66 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

6. Does a dean lose in scholarship or in other value to a 
college as his term is prolonged? If so, would a 
shorter term be fairer to him ? 

7. If executive terms were shortened, would successful 
executives want for opportunities either as executives 
or as instructors? 

24. Provision for Pensioning Professors 

Pension literature is growing by leaps and bounds. Ed- 
ucational journals are reflecting new interest. Faculties 
are discussing pensions as never before. Basic facts will 
be found in reports of the Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. For freelance criticism faculties may well continue to 
look to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, editor of Science and 
of School and Society, Garrison, New York. 

So long as the Carnegie Foundation seemed under the 
pension load, all but a few of the larger colleges delegated 
responsibility for pension plans to that foundation. Now 
that it has announced its inability to extend its provisions 
or even to continue them, and has proposed a self -insurance 
plan for college teachers, it behooves the beneficiaries to 
do their own thinking and to scurry abowt for alternatives. 
The first skirmish in 19 16 showed that private insurance 
companies could underbid the Carnegie Foundation's phi- 
lanthropic terms for self -insurance. 

Whatever plan may be finally proved soundest for college 
instructors, it will help the profession deal intelligently with 
this question if every college compiles for its own group 
the facts as to ages and years of college teaching. In ad- 
dition it is desirable that the number of years of teaching 
in institutions below college rank be stated, and that faculty 
cooperation be sought to secure health facts and family 
facts for each instructor. 

State-supported institutions may find it to their advantage 
to pool their facts and their interest with those of teachers 
in other tax-supported schools, with a view to a possible 
state system of self -insurance or pension, or both. 



Pension Questions 67 

Now that a "cooked and dried" plan under the su- 
zerainty of a great foundation is no longer handed to the 
college world, several new elements will need to be studied, 
particularly the advantages of combining disabihty features 
with age and service features of retirement annuities. 

1. If college teachers are to contribute toward pension 
funds, must their contributions lapse if they retire 
from college teaching, or may they regain their total 
contributions plus legitimate interest? New York 
City's new pension law, 19 17, provides for four per 
cent compound interest on teachers' contributions. 

2. Will colleges make contributions compulsory? 

J. If not, how can colleges prevent giving to non-sub- 
scribers salary rates fixed by the necessities of sub- 
scribers ? 

4. Will colleges build up independent pension or retire- 
ment funds? 

5. How much would it cost each college to retire all 
instructors who in fairness to themselves and to 
students ought to be retired during the next five 
years ? 

25. Academic Vacations 

In addition to learning what vacations are allowed all 
instructors, the survey should ascertain the length of vaca- 
tions : 

.1. For clerical help and other employees detailed to 
instruction officers. 

2. For officers and employees not engaged directly in in- 
struction. 

3. For administrative officers, such as president, dean, 
department head. It is one of the anomalies of 
college management that responsible executives have 
been able to take vacations not merely of the same 
length, but during the same period, as the educational 
officers whom they supervise. 

4. For instructors who work during the summer; i.e., 



68 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

does it rest with the individual instructor to teach 
all summer if he wishes or does the college insist 
upon a vacation? Regardless of summer teaching 
some colleges are giving a sabbatical year or a half 
year, not as a favor, but as part of the instructor's 
salary. Competition will ultimately compel all but 
the financially weakest colleges to make such pro- 
vision, unless the idea of permanent tenure is abol- 
ished. 
5. For favored faculty members or exceptional cases; 
i.e., are faculty members excused from attending 
Commencement? So long as they put in the re- 
quired number of class hours, may they shorten their 
year two weeks, four weeks, ten weeks ? 

If investigation shows what practice would seem to prove, 
— that ablest instructors can do ablest work through a 36 
or 40 week year and at the same time do surpassing work 
through a 6 weeks' summer session, — colleges will begin 
to consider making contracts which call for years of 46 
or 48 weeks. This would mean summer session for many 
more colleges and radical increases in the number of per- 
sons reached by these colleges. 

Miscellaneous questions like these must now be asked 
not only for each college but for each college worker as 
well: 

1. Where did the idea originate that a college year 
should be 36 weeks, and the college man's vacation 
16 weeks? 

2. As you know college professors, do most of them 
have more or less than 16 weeks* vacation? 

3. What justification is there for such a long vacation? 

4. Is it better for those who have it than a shorter 
vacation would be ? 

5. Are books written in vacation time ? 

6. Is work kept up in vacation time? 

7. What proportion of those having long vacations 
would be better off with one month than with three ? 



Challenging Vacation Customs 69 

8. Are there too many vacations during the school year ? 

9. How many days of actual work has your college? 

10. Would education be better off without the breaks at 
midyear and at Easter time ? 

11. Is the long vacation one obstacle to higher salaries in 
educational work? 

12. Would fewer high-grade men and women go into 
this profession if the summer vacation were to be 
4 weeks instead of 10 or 14? 

13. Should administrative officers either take shorter vaca- 
tions or take them at some other time than when the 
instruction staff is on vacation? 

14. Is summer or a considerable part of it needed by ad- 
ministrative officers for reviewing the last year's work 
and planning the next year's work ? 

15. Do administrative officers — president, deans, depart- 
ment heads, directors of courses — have time now 
for consecutive study and planning? 

16. Is there a movement in your locality for continuous 
school work or for a year of 4 quarters with 4 weeks' 
vacation ? 

17. Do you consider that the 4 quarters system has been 
a success where tried? 

18. Has it been too hard for instructors or for students? 

19. Do students benefit from the long vacations? 

20. Would the average student do any more work in 48 
weeks than he now does in 36 ? 

21. Wherever it is true that students benefit more from 
vacation than from schooling, is this an indictment 
of the schooling rather than a compliment to the va- 
cation ? 

22. Does the long vacation give young people a wrong 
sense of the proportion of things and interfere with 
discipline of schooling? 

23. Would it be better to have the vacations more evenly 
distributed among people and more evenly distributed 
among the weeks of the year? 

24. Does it miseducate men and women with respect to 



70 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

world problems and their possible service when we 
inure them to vacations of from 12 to 16 weeks a 
year? 
25. Should all other students excepting those who are 
going into teaching be accustomed at college to the 
working hours and the working year of the outside 
world ? 

26. Outside Audit of Operation Reports 

Few boards of trustees are now willing to put their spend- 
ing officers in the position of auditing their own accounts. 
Sometimes trustees have a subcommittee which goes over 
or audits the bills ; i.e., checks money in against money out 
and remaining. The thoroughness of this audit by trustees 
varies. It is to be feared that on the whole a board of 
trustees having confidence in and intimate relations with 
its spending officers seldom asks the kinds of question that 
an audit should ask. 

To insure an impartial, thoroughgoing audit it is becom- 
ing customary for colleges to employ some outsider, gen- 
erally some certified public accountant, to audit the accounts. 
Obviously if this outsider asks no further questions and 
uses no different method from those of a voluntary com- 
mittee, his survey will be no better protection than the less 
expensive survey of a voluntary committee. What the out- 
side auditor is expected and paid to do should be a matter 
of written instruction. Whether instructions are written 
and definite or verbal and indefinite surveyors can quickly 
learn. 

If only for its effect upon possible givers, the exacting 
audit will prove a good investment. Whatever ground the 
auditor covers and whatever comparisons he makes should 
be made part of his written or printed report. To say 
that he has examined the accounts and cash means nothing 
unless it is known whether or not he has checked each 
bill with the amount paid out on account of it, counted 
the cash, and verified all financial totals and summaries. 
More important still is it for an auditor to ask whether a 




Learning to garden by gardening 



University of California 




Learning to survey by surveying 

Vacation field work is vacation too 



California 



Outside Audit of Annual Reports 71 

businesslike procedure was employed in incurring obligations 
and in meeting them. 

Once in a great while a college treasurer defaults or a 
secretary loses or flagrantly wastes money. Once in a 
great while unauthorized bills are contracted and later or- 
dered paid. An outside audit that mentions these irregu- 
larities is a help. The great danger in college finances is not 
that lies will be told about finances or that money will be 
stolen or lost. There are two graver dangers; i.e., that 
financial reports will be meaningless and that educational 
operations and reports will be inadequate and misleading. 
A department may have received every dollar that is charged 
against it on the books. An audit to that effect is worth 
something. Whether the department has been losing stu- 
dents is an equally important fact. For a college to under- 
state or overstate its educational service is a far more serious 
matter for itself and for society than for it to charge lead- 
pencil cost against fuel. 

Two ways of auditing operation reports are suggested. 
One, that a representative of the trustees, whether called 
business manager or secretary, or any one else responsible 
directly to the trustees, shall review all statistics and other 
reports of educational undertakings and certify to their ade- 
quateness and correctness. Secondly, that colleges which 
do not employ any officer directly responsible to the trustees 
shall employ an outside auditor of educational reports as 
they are beginning to employ an outside auditor of financial 
accounts and reports. 

The reason for not asking a subordinate to audit his 
superior's accounts is obvious. Assuming that he felt free 
to point out any inaccuracy, overstatement, or misrepre- 
sentation by his superior officer, he would, in many instances, 
not be mentally free to look at his superior's work analyti- 
cally. For example, a college executive once wrote that 
the work of which he was a directing head added a million 
dollars a year to the economic wealth of his state. This, 
if true, obviously added tremendously to the appealing 
power of his work. Upon examination it developed that 



72 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

the figure, one million, was obtained by multiplying 200 by 
$500, an initial error of $900,000; that the $500 was sheer 
assumption, unsupported by any evidence; that the 200 
should have been 63. It is no use telling a subordinate that 
he ought to feel perfectly free to call such discrepancies 
to the attention of an officer having power of life or death 
over his position. It is unfair to put a subordinate in that 
position. It is also unfair to put the trustee in the position 
of receiving an unaudited claim of this kind. It is not un- 
fair to have an independent audit by an insider or outsider 
directly accountable, not to those who make the report, but 
to those for whom the report is made. 

In return for the slight cost of such an outside audit the 
college will obtain two direct benefits: a survey as to each 
year's report, and a current procedure with respect to 
making operation reports which will guarantee comprehen- 
sive self -analysis throughout the year by all the officers re- 
sponsible for reporting. No officer will want to have his 
report sent back to him by an independent auditor for cor- 
rection or amplification. Every officer will strive to make 
his reports so complete, so readable, and so accurate, and 
the underlying records of operation so trustworthy and com- 
plete, that an auditor's report will be as simple as it is now 
with respect to well-kept financial accounts. 

2y, Beauty Making and Building 

There is probably not a college in the country which would 
not like an endowed chair in the fine arts. A mere handful 
of colleges are now able to teach about beauty. Every col- 
lege is able to practice beauty-making and civic art. Such 
expression of love for beauty in college surroundings will 
incidentally help secure the endowed chair in fine arts. 
Colleges should not leave it to a New York financier, Mr. 
Otto H. Kahn, to say convincingly: It is very far from 
being appreciated as yet by wealthy men that art can be as 
educational as universities. 

No formal instruction in fine arts can offset the harm 
done to society and to students from such conditions as 



Beauty Making and Building 73 

these : architectural monstrosities and incongruities ; unclean 
walks, yards, buildings, and rooms; defaced walls; unclean 
air in classrooms ; neglected toilet facilities ; abused shrubs, 
trees, and lawns ; inartistic photographs ; discordant colors ; 
inartistic and slovenly publications and programs; awk- 
ward handling of public occasions, such as assemblies, etc. ; 
disrespectful and unesthetic use of language by officers in 
charge of meetings ; imimaginative language in official pub- 
lications, such as catalogs and reports ; failure to bring out 
the beauty aspects of Greek or German literature, history, 
nature study, and Bible, 

Building " from hand to mouth " is profligate. Yet few 
colleges, needy as they are or think they are, have budgeted 
their building needs and resources say for ten or even five 
years ahead. Even repairs are in very few cases on an 
actuarial basis; instead of estimating a percentage for re- 
pairs — Miami estimates 2% — which if spent annually will 
keep buildings in repair, too many colleges put off repairing 
until the last hour. Of course they are always in disrepair 
and always too late to be economically repaired. 

Unless there is some other officer besides a regent or 
the president responsible for construction, maintenance, and 
repairs, this work will seldom be balanced, consistent, and 
provident. Apparently it is necessary to insure that some 
one person shall take a professional interest in this service. 
This is entirely compatible with a line of responsibility from 
building superintendent (a) to business manager, (b) to 
president, (c) to chairman of board's committee, (d) to 
board. 

28. Academic Freedom 

There is no little concern felt throughout the country for 
the integrity of academic freedom. A number of alleged 
persecutions for expressing opinion have been investigated 
by the American Association of College Professors. The 
pendulum has swung so far in favor of freedom that there 
is more danger at present from academic license than from 
interference with academic freedom. Particularly is there 



74 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

danger of interference with academic trustees when trying 
even to find the minimum facts about the work and expendi- 
tures which they are sponsoring. 

It behooves every college to canvass its instructors and to 
secure a list of infractions or near infractions, or of con- 
ditions that invite infraction, of academic freedom. 

1. Do you know any college professor who wants and 
is able to teach something he is not allowed to teach ? 
In how many of these cases does the prohibition come 
from trustees rather than from faculty colleagues or 
college president? 

2. If the university president and dean " put the kibosh " 
on a course in Socialism the year when the legislature 
meets, would you call this interference with academic 
freedom by the legislature ? 

3. Who thinks that college instructors should be free 
from criticism for inefficiency, or even for clumsiness, 
tactlessness, indiscreet or confusion-causing speech? 

4. Do you agree with a certain noted dean who says: 
" Our university insists upon academic freedom but 
we do not expect any instructor to act like a damn 
fool?" 

5. Can a man be academically free who has no personal 
courage; who makes up his mind without evidence; 
who is so anxious for preferment that he suppresses 
opinion known not to be pleasing to his superior 
officer ; who is never asked to make suggestions ; who 
sees that college questions are dealt with on the basis 
of personalities? 

6. What is interfering most with academic freedom in 
this country, — trustees, governors, legislatures, ad- 
ministrative officers, faculty sentiment, personal am- 
bition, lack of ambition, lack of personality, greed for 
preferment, distant educational leaders, educational 
foundations? Does not the press discussion of Co- 
lumbia's proposed investigation of faculty opinion in 
19 1 7 prove that independence of speech is strongly 
buttressed even against trustees? 



Academic Freedom Tests 75 

7. In how many colleges will it promote academic free- 
dom to have selection, preferment, promotion, or 
dismissal depend upon faculty action rather than upon 
administrative action or joint administrative and de- 
partmental action ? 

Practically colleges will be troubled oftener and more 
sorely by what outsiders say or might say than by what 
faculty members wish to teach. Columbia University with- 
draws an invitation to Leo Tolstoy's son. The University 
of Wisconsin revokes a permit for a " Socialist " to address 
the students. Repression has made friends for Count Tol- 
stoy's "radicalism" and for "Socialism." A free rein 
might have frightened prospective donors or parents. Will 
colleges survey measurable results of local freedom and re- 
striction before formulating any other policy but untram- 
meled discussion ? 

29. Endowments, State Aids, and Salary Levels 

However active presidents may be in promoting cam- 
paigns for large endowments or large state aid, the trustees 
are responsible for the size of program to be financed. Pro- 
jection as well as conservation may legitimately be expected 
of the efficient trustee. If it has been easier to interest trus- 
tees in the need for new buildings, larger campuses, and addi- 
tions to program than in higher salary levels, it is only fair 
to trustees to recall that the need for higher salary levels has 
also been harder for educational leaders to see clearly. 

Harvard alumni are campaigning for a $10,000,000 en- 
dowment to increase salaries. Princeton is asking for 
$2,500,000 merely to maintain the teaching force at the 
present point of efficiency; i.e., to meet partially the increased 
cost of living. This adds nothing to the actual salary level. 
Similar appeals are being made everywhere, but usually on 
the plea of meeting the increased living costs rather than 
of meeting the need for higher quality of service. 

Questions regarding salary levels are discussed on pages 
172 ff. under Faculty Government, because the initial steps 



7^ Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

in this campaign will be taken by instructors themselves. 
Proving that service is worth more is a legitimate duty of 
servers. Finding increased funds for better service is the 
unevadable duty of those served; i.e., regents and trustees 
representing the community. 

That salary levels for college instruction are not what they 
are — some say high, others say low — because of limited 
endowments is proved by the fact that our great state univer- 
sities and normal schools have unlimited endowments, i.e., 
the taxing power of rich commonwealths. When taxpayers 
see that college salaries should be higher, necessary funds 
will be voted. How shall private colleges meet this compe- 
tition from state universities? The assumption is that ad- 
ditional charges can be met only out of additional endow- 
ment. It is taken for granted that tuition charges are about 
as high as they can be. Charges for tuition and incidental 
fees need to be surveyed by trustees. In few instances are 
these charges fitted either to the value of the service or to 
the ability of students to pay. Why sons of multimillionaires 
should pay one cent less than it costs to give them instruc- 
tion needs better explanation than that higher tuitions would 
make it impossible for many deserving young people to go 
to college. There are many evidences that no form of pau- 
perization does more harm to society than higher education's 
method of giving services that cost $2000 for tuitions of 
from $400 to $1000. Every graduate of Yale is the bene- 
ficiary of material relief equal to material relief given to 100 
average families by city relief societies. 

These questions regents will profitably answer: 

1. What is the total annual net cost? How much per 
student registered ? How much per student hour reg- 
istered ? 

2. What is the net cost per register ? How much of this 
cost is met by endowments or by appropriation ? 

3. How much remains each year to be met by special 
appeals ? 

4. How much more would be needed to put instructors' 



Tapping Graduates' Unearned Increments 77 

salaries on a level which would take care of the in- 
creased cost of living and recognize the value of the 
instructors' services after considering value of instruc- 
tors, working conditions including long vacations, op- 
portunities for research, etc.? 

5. How much in addition to present receipts and endow- 
ments would be needed annually to put and keep the 
college on a business basis? 

6. How much per full student course — e.g., 16 credits 
— would this be ? 

7. What reason is there for not requiring each student to 
pay this amount either in (a) cash in advance; (b) 
cash in installments during college course; (c) prom- 
issory note to be paid back out of future earnings ? 

8. If temporarily there is insuperable objection — senti- 
mental, practical, or legal — against charging cost to 
those who most directly benefit from it, what objection 
is there to opening a fund for repayment and keeping 
the presence of this fund constantly before alumni as 
opportunity in all cases, and as duty in case where a 
student can afford to repay ? 

The last two questions have on several occasions been 
answered by the statement that higher education is con- 
ducted, not for the individual, but for the state, and that one 
man may through public service, a mechanical invention, or 
business efficiency repay the state a hundredfold for main- 
taining a university. Of course, it is just as obvious that a 
contributor to social welfare who has never gone to college 
is also worth more than the college has cost. It does not 
follow that a successful doctor or lawyer or minister should 
not definitely recognize his obligation or that private and 
state colleges should not provide for repayment. 

An enormous and continually growing endowment fund 
would result from such a plan. Because those who can 
afford to pay are required to pay is no reason why those 
who cannot afford to pay should not be exempted after 
recorded evidence of non-ability to pay. Investigation will 



78 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

show that conspicuous service to society is by no means 
synonymous with non-reward for such service ; i.e., with fi- 
nancial inabiHty to pay back tuition costs. 

In considering the possibility of tremendously increasing 
college resources by tapping the unearned increments of col- 
lege graduates and former students, it should not be forgot- 
ten that elementary and high school graduates in every other 
respect except in ability to pay the equals, if not the su- 
periors, of those who go to college are doubly taxed, first, 
by being deprived of opportunity and secondly by having to 
help support their more fortunate fellows at college. 

Every scholarship fund has been convinced that something 
happens to the student when he makes a business pledge to 
pay back his loan for college expenses that seldom happens 
if those expenses are presented as a gift. Perhaps the stu- 
dent mortality would be lower and the character and scholar- 
ship product higher if every man or woman who goes to col- 
lege were made to feel that his way is being fully paid. 

Yale's alumni had up to 1916 given directly, — i.e., not 
counting parents' and friends' legacies, — $1,600,000 to the 
Yale University Fund Association which was organized 
'' so that no graduate need feel excluded from giving because 
he could not afford to give largely." 

The handling of endowments is too often unimaginative. 
Because wildcat speculation is questionable financially and 
morally is no reason why colleges should hide their talents 
in a napkin or even in a savings bank. It is often much 
better to spend an unrestricted legacy in doing some new 
service that will win new friends than to invest it at four or 
six per cent. To make investments in living students more 
productive than in savings-bank accounts requires that trus- 
tees be watchful in testing results. Experience proves that 
endowments are more apt to enervate and blind than to 
invigorate, wherever trustees think of endowments as assets 
rather than as obligations. Therefore it is important that 
trustees have built up for them a cumulative list of services 
needed, so that new endowments will mean more service 
rather than less work for the same service. 



IV 

EXECUTIVE AND BUSINESS EFFICIENCY 

30. EMciency of Administration 

T N every college there are certain fields, processes, and jobs 
-■• that are called administrative. An imaginary line like 
the equator is drawn between administration and education. 
Faculties appreciate the necessity for administration but 
regret its frequent intrusions. 

Whatever any college group calls administration it will 
admit is subject to the same laws and tests that apply to 
administration elsewhere. Within this narrow field the 
principle of so-called scientific management will therefore be 
welcomed. Ostensibly the self -survey or will find only 
whole-hearted cooperation when asking questions about the 
efficiency of routine college business. Actually it will be 
harder in many colleges to deal frankly with administrative 
processes than with educational processes, for the very rea- 
son that any shortcoming on the business side is without 
either plausible extenuation or scapegoat. Nevertheless, 
quick results will always follow a detailed survey or self- 
survey of college administration. Witness the notable ad- 
vances — so welcome after they are made — by new presi- 
dents and new deans. 

As in every other business, it pays to start the entering 
wedges with simple questions about which there is practically 
no difference of opinion in or out of college. 

1. Is work done by hand which should be done by ma- 
chines? F. ., A^... f... 

2. Are circular letters typed several times when one typ- 
ing or mimeographing would suffice? F. . . N. . , 

? 
• » . • 

3. Are important papers tied up in bundles for want of 
filing cases? F. . . A^. . . f . . . 

4. Is a stenographer employed who makes so many mis- 
takes and forgets so much that she reduces the ef- 

79 



8o Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ficiency of president, dean, and faculty, besides ac- 
tually costing more money than an efficient secretary ? 
Y N ^ 

5. Is a person who asks the name of a professor sent a 
typewritten letter and a 200-page catalog? F... 

6. Are college publications piled up and mailed without 
inventory or check? F. . . iV". . . f . . . 

7. Are supposedly self-supporting dormitories run at a 
heavy loss? F... %... N... f . . . 

8. Is the bookkeeping obsolete? F. . . AT. . . f . . . 

9. Do buildings cost too much per cubic foot ? F . . . 

10. Is the college living and acting " from hand to 
mouth," without a budget? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

So much has been written about scientific management 
and business efficiency that it seems inadvisable for this 
handbook to restate for colleges all the earmarks of efficient 
handling of routine business. Instead only typical high 
spots will be discussed. 

The General Education Board, speaking from 13 years' 
experience with college appeals, mentioned the following 
nine evidences that college management has been neglected : 

1. Inaccurate financial statistics. 

2. Incomplete financial statistics. 
3:. Improper bookkeeping. 

4. Careless trusteeship, especially of permanent funds. 

5. Lack of annual audit. 

6. Misuse of financial terms. 

7. Funds raised for endowment used to meet current ex- 
penses. I 

8. Educational and non^educational accounts kept with- 
out proper distinctions. 

9. Cost for separate departments not kept separately. 

A handbook on methods of correcting these weaknesses is 
being prepared by that board for free distribution. 




These two illustrations are from a city exhibit at Jackson, Michigan, 
prepared by a student in training for pubUc service 




To compare college results will also train students 



Testing Administration 8i 

Numerous aids to the self-surveyor will be found in Rec- 
ord Aids in College Management, compiled of the best sug- 
gestions received from 54 colleges and universities by the 
Institute for Public Service, 51 Chambers Street, New York 
City. 

The standard for college management is as a rule set in 
the president's office. If this office is unbusinesslike, dila- 
tory, repetitious, sporadic, slovenly, inaccurate, evasive, for- 
getful, inconsistent, vindictive, partisan, prejudiced, inhos- 
pitable, or hectic, many or all of these attributes will be 
found in offices of business agents, deans, and department 
heads. Whether and how far any or all of these attributes 
are expressed in administration can be quickly learned. 

President McVey of North Dakota keeps a steering chart 
before him ; viz., a monthly summary showing how much has 
been spent for each activity thus far during the year and 
how much remains. A similar cumulative chart showing 
facts about students will keep the executive aware of spe- 
cial heeds. President Godfrey of Drexel Institute reports 
to his board, probably as conservative as any in the world, 
via graphs. President Hughes of Miami has graphs show- 
ing whither recent rates of growth will bring the university 
in five and ten years. 

In many colleges the president is away so much that the 
tone-maker-in-chief may be either the dean who acts as 
president or the registrar. 

One test no surveyor except the president himself is apt 
to make; viz., the distribution of the president's year (see 
page 87). Yet this is one of the most important matters 
in college administration. Budgeting and recording the time 
distribution of the president and other administrative officers 
is quite as essential as budgeting and recording the expendi- 
tures of college funds. 

31. Efficiency of College Executives 

Success as a college executive seems to be a foundling. 
Experience does not tell what kind of previous experience 
as student, teacher, or other worker best fits a man for col- 



82 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

lege management. Preachers have succeeded; capitalists 
have succeeded; professors have succeeded. Representa- 
tives of each class have failed. It really matters little what 
an executive was if as an executive he ** fills the bill." 
There is no safety for a college in any other test than the 
scientific-management test of an executive at work. 

Among the minimum evidences of prospective success 
which should be looked for in every college administrator 
are these : 

1. An open mind. 

2. An analytical mind. 

3. Ability to learn from reading as well as from hearing. 

4. Inability to prevaricate. 

5. Ability to get results by cooperation as well as by 
direction; i.e., divine art of delegation. 

6. Definite knowledge of secondary education through 
contact or supervision or both. 

7. Belief in the utmost possible democracy in adminis- 
tration of higher education. 

8. Five years as supervisor and adviser of others' work. 

In addition to applying minimum essential tests for every 
candidate for an administrative position in higher education, 
competition and self-surveys will undoubtedly lead colleges 
to look for qualifications beyond minimum essentials which 
will recognize degrees and qualities of experience and attain- 
ment. 

These questions need thorough consideration : 

1. What educational qualifications should a college presi- 
dent have? 

2. What previous experience should he have ? 

3. What personal qualities should he have? 

4. Are qualifications the same for all presidents or do 
qualifications differ with each institution? 

5. Should the work to be done be clearly formulated 
before qualifications are enumerated? 

6. Should qualifications be listed and each candidate 



Qualifications of College Presidents 83 

compared with this list, or should trustees be guided 
by their general impressions? 

7. Where general impressions rather than definite speci- 
fications are used, is there a probability that different 
regents will have entirely different qualifications in 
mind? Or emphasize different quahfications ? 

8. Is there any danger that strong candidates will be 
placed at a disadvantage by substituting definite for 
general tests of fitness ? 

9. Should a college president be a highly educated man ? 

10. Need he be an effective public speaker? 

1 1 . How important is the ability to get money from leg- 
islators or from private sources? 

12. Should the president be a good mixer with his fac- 
ulty? 

13. Should the president be a specialist? 

14. For your own college would you concede that the 
following are minimum essentials, lacking any one of 
which no person would be eligible to the presidency ? 

a. A college graduate. 

b. Ten years, after graduation, of experience in 
the relation of teacher, whether in school or 
profession or business. 

c. Five years' experience as supervisor and tester 
of others' work. 

d. Forceful personality. 

e. Pleasing voice. 

f. Directness. 

g. Intellectual independence. 

h. Facility in and love for contact with faculty 
and student. 

i. Belief in utmost possible democracy in the ad- 
ministration of higher education. 

j. Definite knowledge of secondary education 
through contact and supervision. 

15. How would you distribute 100 points among the fol- 
lowing qualifications beyond the minimum essentials 
either in degree or in kind ? 



84 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

a. Postgraduate work, master's degree, doctor's 
degree, or equivalent. 

b. Successful specialization in research. 

c. Popular recognition for scholarship. 

d. Ability as public speaker. 

e. Reputation as public speaker. 

f. Ability to secure funds from legislators or 
private sources. 

g. Additional allowance for each twenty persons 
supervised. 

h. Additional allowance for each college or school 
successfully supervised. 

A university president upon request for his view regard- 
ing the selection of president made the following statement: 

** I find myself pretty much in agreement with what 
you say, but I do not agree with the proposal to limit 
executive service to five or seven years. I find some of 
the most efficient men to be those who have been in of- 
fice a considerable length of time. A man in a uni- 
versity executive office can't learn the problems in less 
than three years, and his greatest usefulness comes 
after that. To make a bald statement of limit on serv- 
ice without qualifications is to give over your usual at- 
titude of fairness. The job is too difficult and too 
straining to make it worth while to get ready for it on 
the basis you propose. In my opinion what is needed 
is greater permanency of position and greater careful- 
ness on the part of trustees in the selection of men. 

" As near as one can get at it, through an analysis of 
the selections made by boards of trustees in the last five 
years for executive posts in universities, the bases of 
selection can be placed in the following order : 

1. Appearance and poise in public gatherings. 

2. Ability to speak. 

3. Personality. 

4. Orthodoxy of views, ethical and economic. 



Questions or Notes 85 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



86 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

5. Executive ability. 

6. Executive experience. 

7. Educational experience. 

8. Knowledge of educational systems and methods. 

" A more reasonable basis v^ould appear to be 

1. Knowledge of and experience in secondary edu- 
cation. 

2. Knowledge of and experience in college and uni- 
versity education. 

3. Personality. 

4. Love and appreciation of democracy and what it 
stands for in education. 

5. Experience and training as an executive. 

6. Ability as a speaker." 

Dean and department head may be substituted for presi- 
dent in most of the questions regarding executives. To- 
day's dean is to-morrow's president. To the overwhelm- 
ing majority of students and faculty members the dean is 
in loco presidentis. Whether deans possess the above eight 
minimum essentials and the qualities in questions 14 and 15 
each dean will want to know for himself and each trustee 
will wisely ask. 

Double representation is expected of deans and depart- 
ment heads — they represent their faculties but also repre- 
sent the management. It is very difficult to reflect and con- 
duct light — both ways at one time and impartially. What- 
ever else these representative-executives do, they must " get 
along with " their superior officers. Tests of their efficiency 
in representing the management are the same as those for 
other executives. The main problem concerns their repre- 
sentation of their own faculties: 

I. Are deans selected by presidents, ... by trustees with- 
out presidential nomination, ... or by college facul- 
ties . . . ? Are they selected for ability as executives 
... or as representative spokesmen . . . ? For their 
leadership ... or their lickspittling . . . ? 



Deans and Department Heads 87 

2. Are deans responsible to trustees directly ... or only 
through the president . . . ? 

3. In what respects may deans speak for their faculties 
without first referring to faculty vote? 

4. Has the faculty right of recall over its deans? Y. . , 
N.,. 

5. Where matters are common to all faculties or di- 
visions, do faculties deal with president and trustees 
through deans, . . . , or through a single representative 
of the president, . . ., e.g., health director or dean of 
women ? 

It is absence of such questioning which has produced 
the condition referred to by a college professor who is cele- 
brated for his contributions to educational administration: 

*' So many of these college leaders impress me as 
having been ruined by executive and platform work. 
They never read and have done no thinking for many 
years." 

The recent election of H. C. Bumpus to Tufts' presidency 
and of Marion L. Burton to Minnesota's presidency are in- 
dications that proved administrative competence will come to 
vie with platform competence as a qualification for promo- 
tion in academic management. 

32. President's Working Year as President 

Without questioning here the use made by any president 
of any part of his time, it is suggested that the work of all 
other persons for the college will be more effective if each 
college president will self -survey one year's time distri- 
bution under the following heads: 

1. To educational leadership. 

a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. 

b. In the interest of other college agencies, per- 
sonal aggrandizement, or general uplift. 

2. To educational spokesmanship. 

a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. 



88 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- 
grandizement, or general uplift. 

3. To general educational advertising. 

a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. 

b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- 
grandizement, or general uplift. 

4. To being in evidence at conventions and other public 
meetings. 

a. Exclusively in the interest of his college. 

b. In the interest of other agencies, personal ag- 
grandizement, or general uplift. 

5. To educational begging. 

6. To educational vacationing. 

7. To personal conferences. 

a. With trustees. 

b. With faculty, committees, etc. 

c. With students. 

d. With others, such as legislators, visitors, etc. 

8. To observing instruction, research, field tests, etc. 

9. To administrative w^ork. 

a. In his own office. 

b. At official meetings. 

c. At business meetings with trustees, commit- 
tees, etc. 

d. At faculty meetings. 

e. In other parts of the college. 
10. To just being president. 

Another group of facts will help each president survey his 
own opportunities; viz., time given as president or as scholar 
and man to personal study ; recreation, including social inter- 
course ; business and family affairs ; etc. 

The heading *' Administrative Work " needs to be broken 
up into elements and questions: 

1. How much does the president do which a clerk or 
other officer might better be doing? 

2. Does the president act as a messenger when a 2-cent 
stamp or messenger would do as well ? Y . , , N , . , 



President's Preparedness 89 

5. Does he insist upon having everything come to him 
in writing which can be satisfactorily and economi- 
cally stated . . . , or does he permit people to take up 
his time telling him what does not belong to him or 
what could be briefly written or typed . . . ? 

4. Has he a current record of unfinished business re- 
quiring his attention? Y, , , iV. . . /. . . 

5. How promptly does he know facts about registra- 
tion, space assignments, expenses? 

6. Does information come to him summarized so that 
he can see at a glance what it means, . . . , or must 
he spend his time analyzing statements to dig out their 
meaning, ..., i.e., are the subtractions, additions, 
percentages, significant facts, and recommendations 
prepared to conserve his energy for consideration and 
discussion ? Y , , . N , . , f . . . 

7. Is record made of his promises? F. . . AT... 

8. Has he invited suggestions and criticisms Y, . , 
N. . . f . . . and provided for their prompt consid- 
eration and reference by appropriate officers? Y, , , 

9. Is he carrier ... or carried . . . ? 

10. Is he reached by evidence ... or by stratagem . . . ? 

33. First Faculty Meeting Each Year 

One of the best tests of college business, particularly of 
the president's part in administration, is what happens at 
the first faculty meeting of the year. The opportunity is 
often partially or entirely lost by presidents and deans for 
the following reasons : 

1. Its importance has not been appreciated — no special 
preparation is made ; unpreparedness is the dominant 
note ; standing committees are not ready to report ; the 
president is not ready to appoint future standing com- 
mittees ; machinery creaks. 

2. Last year's results and conditions have not been sum- 
marized in advance and studied for presentation at 
this first meeting. 



90 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

3. This year's problems, needs, and opportLinities have 
not been thought out, Hsted, and explained. 

4. The reciprocal relations of faculty with president and 
of faculty with faculty have not been defined so as 
to make the president seem an integral part of each 
man's best work; therefore he speaks as stranger to 
stranger. 

5. The student's part in the college program is under- 
emphasized or too indefinitely treated. 

6. Little, if any, part in this first meeting is taken by the 
faculty itself — in preparing for it, in contributing 
to it. 

7. The president threshes over old straw. 

8. The president talks about inspiration without seeing 
that only team work can be inspirational and that 
what fails to inspire team work tends to disintegrate. 

9. Too many members stay away, — the chilling effect is 
not decreased where the meeting room is known to 
be too small for all faculty members. Non-attend- 
ance is taken to mean, and does mean, non-interest. 

10. The president has been too little in evidence prior to 
the meeting; too few officers and members are con- 
scious when they come of being in step with him and 
with one another. 

1 1 . The meeting comes too late in the session. Too many 
bad beginnings have been made. Registration has 
been without spirit. Advisers have not enjoyed their 
work. Preparatory meetings of advisers have not 

been held. Students have not yet met together. 

12. Educational problems common to all are sidetracked 
by so-called business which never ought to be brought 
before a whole faculty and could be attended to by 
mimeographed summaries. The minutes of the last 
meeting of the year before are read instead of a sum- 
mary of the year's lessons. Perhaps details of dis- 
cipline cases already settled are laboriously read 

aloud, thus furnishing an anticlimax. 



Presidential Reports Are Symptoms 91 

In a particular college to be surveyed the minutes of this 
first meeting for one or several years may be profitably read 
and a meeting attended. If the surveyor is the president 
himself, it will be easy to check back, — or check forward, 
— to compare what he has done with what might be done. 

34. President's Report — Opportunity and Index 

Presidential and other official reports are apt not to be 
included in special surveys; yet they contain invaluable in- 
dexes to opportunities for increasing efficiency. 

The date on most college reports is itself an index to 
serious need. With few exceptions the report comes too 
late for use in planning the succeeding year's work. In 
other words, the report is regarded as a record and not as 
a guide and inspiration. 

Questions that the self-surveyor will ask include these : 

1. Does the president's report bear evidence of current 
analysis during the previous year? F. . . N... 

2. Does it show analysis of last year's summaries ? 

3. Are lessons from last year condensed and applied to 
next year's opportunities? Y... N... 

4. Will those who furnish money and students find the 
report readable? Y. . , N . . , Does it come out in 
sections; i.e., readable doses, . . ., or in an appalling 
volume . . . ? 

5. Does it deal as frankly with mistakes made, short- 
comings discovered, and needs recognized as it does 
with increased numbers and need for gifts? Y. . . 
N... f... 

6. What evidence does it bear that the president has 
been studying general educational questions, includ- 
ing the experience of other colleges and of secondary 
and elementary schools? 

7. What evidence is there that the president and staff 
have been analyzing the communities which their col- 
lege principally serves ? 



92 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

8. Is the report one which will help other educators deal 
definitely with important problems ? Y , , , N , , » 

The facts conveyed in a president's report are more im- 
portant than his interpretation. For some time to come 
surveyors will helpfully compare reports with certain min- 
imum essentials that are needed to describe the work of 
any college, so that trustees, faculty, and other colleges 
may have a basis for independent judgment regarding its 
stewardship. With few exceptions minimum essentials 
should be stated for at least two periods — the year reviewed 
and the preceding year. Oftentimes the fifth year preceding 
or the tenth should be given, in order to disclose tendencies. 
Wherever more than one year is compared, it will help read- 
ers of reports if instead of printing facts for the earlier 
years only the difference between each year and the year re- 
viewed be stated both in amounts and percentages. Seldom 
does a report's audience make the subtractions necessary 
to understand a comparison. 

What item in the following tentative list of minimum 
essentials is unnecessary for the purpose of either comparing 
a president's work with his opportunities, or comparing one 
college with another ? 

Student facts 

i« Total number of students registered in all depart- 
ments. 

a. In full courses. 

b. In medium courses. 

c. In short courses. 

2. Equivalent of full-course students. President Pritch- 
ett of the Carnegie Foundation once wrote to a uni- 
versity president that the latter's method of counting 
short-course students the same as long-course stu- 
dents reminded him of a Kansas farmer who bought 
a farm with ** thirty head of stock." Upon analysis 
the thirty were found to be two horses, one cow, a 
pig, and twenty-six hens! 



Minimum Essentials for Annual Reports 93 

3. The number of students registered in the first semes- 
ter only. 

4. Number registered in the second semester only. 
President Bumpus of Tufts College when business 
manager at Wisconsin showed that fifteen per cent 
ought to be subtracted from the usual total to allow 
for those registering only one semester. 

5. Number dropping out during the first semester. 

6. Number dropping out at the end of the first semester. 

7. Number dropping out during the second semester. 

8. Comparison of present number of sophomore, jun- 
ior, and senior classes with their freshmen enroll- 
ment, showing numbers that have subsequently en- 
rolled and those that have dropped out. These fig- 
ures are always available and raise helpful questions 
about the holding power of the college and each di- 
vision. 

9. Reasons for dropping out. Whether dropping out is 
justifiable is not the question. Until it is stated 
how many drop out, the reasons will not be properly 
studied and higher education's responsibility cannot be 
determined. 

10. Summary of what was done to anticipate or to pre- 
vent dropping out. 

11. Number taking more or less than full work to be 
stated in hours of work, — twenty or over, eighteen, 
nineteen, sixteen to seventeen, fourteen to fifteen, 
twelve to thirteen, ten to eleven, six to nine, five and 
less. Whether thinking of cost, responsibility, or in- 
fluence, a student registering for six or twelve hours 
ought not to count the same as one registering for 
fourteen or eighteen hours. Publishing facts for 
each year will show how many exceptions there are 
to the rule that every student must take at least four- 
teen to sixteen hours. 

12. Equivalent of full-time-course registrations. 

13. Number receiving credits as per analysis under item 
II. While it is true that it costs as much to work 



94 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

with a student who fails as with one who passes, it 
should be possible to compare registrations with cred- 
its. For college managers it is important to com- 
pare not merely totals but registrations with credits 
among those who take ten hours, eighteen hours, etc. 

14. Equivalent of full credits received. When compared 
with the full credits registered for, this will show a 
difference that will require examination by deans and 
president and perhaps by regents. 

15. Number of students who fail in one, two, five sub- 
jects ; in two, three, five, ten credits. 

16. Total number of failures. Here one student failing 
in three subjects would be counted as three failures 
and would be reason for three different investiga- 
tions. 

17. Reasons for failures, classified. 

18. Summary of what was done to anticipate and to pre- 
vent failures, with facts about grades and honors. 

Instructor facts 

19. Number of instructors by rank who meet classes in 
recitation, quiz, lecture, or laboratory five or fewer 
hours weekly; six hours; seven hours; eight hours; 
nine to ten hours ; eleven to twelve ; thirteen to four- 
teen ; etc. This information will be welcomed by the 
faculty and will help secure the money necessary to 
prevent overburdening younger faculty members. 

20. Number of new instructors of each rank, with brief 
summary of previous educational and teaching experi- 
ence. 

21. Total number of instructors by rank. 

22. Total number of credits earned by students for each 
rank of instructor. 

Use-of-space facts 

23. Number of rooms classified according to use — reci- 
tation, laboratory, lecture, department office, show- 
ing number of hours used — one to five ; six to ten ; 



Minimum Essentials for Annual Reports 95 

eleven to fifteen, etc., per week; similar description 
of other properties used, partially used, not used. 

Money facts 

24. Financial report which will give all the information 
called for by the Carnegie Foundation's uniform plan. 

25. Add to the Carnegie Foundation's plan total accruals, 
— money owed and not yet paid, moneys due from 
others and not yet received. Goods used this year 
but paid for in preceding years should be charged 
against this year. Goods paid for during the year 
but not used should be subtracted in statement of 
cost and later charged to the year when used. This 
applies to fuel, supplies, printing, insurance, and to 
services as well as goods. Finally include a charge 
for each year's share of permanent plant — interest 
if buildings are paid for, installments if payments are 
made during the year, plus a proper charge for de- 
preciation. 

26. Cost — gross and net — per credits registered for. 
2y. Cost — gross and net — for credits received. 

28. Cost — gross and net — for equivalent of students re- 
ceiving full credits. Gross cost means total amount 
of money spent in giving quantity and quality of 
service reported upon, regardless of where the money 
comes from. This is the most useful comparison of 
college with college. Net cost is a misnomer im- 
properly applied by colleges to net outlay above re- 
ceipts from students, taxpayers, donors, and invest- 
ments — it really means net deficit. 

Miscellaneous facts 

29. Number of classes and number of instructors visited 
by president and deans. 

30. Advance steps taken — educational and administra- 
tive. 

31. Principal lessons learned. 

32. Experiments or studies under way. 



96 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

33. Needs disclosed. 

34. Questions raised and not yet answered. 

35. Recommendations for the future. 

35. Method of Appealing and Publicity 

Seldom will outside surveyors be asked to report upon 
the appeals and publicity by which a college secures moral 
and financial support. Wherever a publicly supported in- 
stitution is studied this topic cannot, in fairness to tax- 
payers and students, be neglected. Self -surveyors will find 
many opportunities here to be of prompt and provable help 
to their college. 

During one year it was my privilege to receive many visits 
and written appeals in behalf of colleges. For colleges and 
schools requests for $55,000,000 were reviewed. Since 
then I have read numerous appeals and every published re- 
port I could obtain. The most striking fact about this col- 
lege publicity, particularly college appealing, is its indefinite- 
ness and its amateurishness. In cases where foundation dis- 
cipline has compelled definiteness as to dollars, there often 
remains indefiniteness as to service, and an appalling ab- 
sence of reason for giving to the particular institution which 
appeals. 

How those of us who studied these appeals felt at the 
time is explained by the following excerpts from Modern 
Philanthropy: 

They are right who suggest to the wealthy that 
unlimited service can be rendered if only funds are 
provided. One year apart two appeals came from the 
same institution. The first reflected incompetence, 
misunderstanding, and misstatements. The second 
mentioned gifts of from $5000 to $25,000 from some 
of the best-known men and women in the country. 
Thus, with no change whatever on the inside, the in- 
competent of yesterday becomes the potential competent 
and influential of today. 

Appeals for colleges show colleges not only as they 




Eight weeks in real library work 



Wisconsin Library School 




Learning to serve by serving Wisconsin Library School 

Proof of vital work is the best publicity 



Appealing and Publicity 97 

see themselves but as they do their best to make others 
see them. Perhaps this is why on the whole appealing 
technique is less efficient, frankness less flagrant, and 
definiteness less frequent than the college halo would 
lead one to expect. The next generation goes to col- 
lege ; the present generation pays its bills ; but the last 
generation makes the bequests, gives the endowments, 
and erects the buildings, — at least if the wording of 
appeals is a true index. Conditions of survival en- 
courage and tempt those who write appeals for edu- 
cational institutions to use the general language of 
motive and message rather than the specifics of present- 
day relations. The present syllogism reads : *' Col- 
leges give education. Education is salvation. Who 
helps me gives salvation, democracy, and freedom." 

Speaking from a more extensive experience as receiver of 
begging letters, President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foun- 
dation wrote to us of them as follows : 

" Many institutions I regret to say put forth claims 
which are wholly fictitious and yet which are put into 
so alluring a form as to invite public sympathy and 
support. In most cases this is not done from any in- 
tention to deceive but generally from lack of knowl- 
edge of the real educational situation. The chance of 
doing harm is much greater than the chance of doing 
good unless the giver knows." 

For whatever field appeals are made, the uninformed 
and unquestioning giver fosters, as by spontaneous combus- 
tion, uninforming, insincere, exaggerated appeals. Also, 
whether we speak of private colleges or state universities, 
the questioning public which uses its information and seeks 
more information will secure analyzed, classified, inform- 
ing statements from colleges wishing support. 

Mr. A. B'. Blank, Professor of Ethics, Blank University, 
sent in his card. Questioning developed the fact that he 
had never seen this university; that he therefore taught no 



98 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

classes ; and that the title professor was given him to make 
it easier to secure access to possible givers. When asked 
for reasons why money should be given to his college rather 
than to fifty others, it developed that this itinerant appealer 
had no specific reason whatever except that the college 
needed the money and that he had been told by his presi- 
dent that a public man, now dead, had told the president 
that if this man had not died he would have been interested 
in that college because one of his railroads ran by it! 
Reasons given by state universities for extensions of serv- 
ice or salary increases are often quite as unconvincing and 
not infrequently have been as unfair to their institutions. 

In Modern Philanthropy I listed strong and weak points 
in appealing and publicity as gathered from 6000 letters of 
appeal and ten years' study of publicity matter. Self-sur- 
veyors may find it useful to check local practices against 
these strong and weak points. 

Three standards of commercial advertising should be ap- 
plied to college appealing and advertising : 

1. Is it where people will see it? 

2. Is it written so that people will read it? 

3. Does it tell the truth so that people will believe it? 

Perhaps the most important single test is whether pub- 
licity matter features concrete facts. The reasons for edu- 
cation have been stated over and over again; so have the 
reasons for the existence of a particular institution. Con- 
stituents upon whom a college has a claim need to be told, 
not ancient history, not educational philosophy, but specific 
needs-not-yet-met and the cost of meeting these needs. 

1. How much publicity is paid for each year? 

2. Does the paid-for publicity take the form of paid 
advertisements, bulletins, or other printed matter, or 
is publicity achieved by paying for work which will 
occasion comment in magazine and newspaper? 

3. Are clippings kept to show publicity received ? Y . . , 
N. . . f,,. Are they analyzed to show how much 



Surveying Publicity Methods 99 

direct publicity affects the college constituency and 
how much is so far away as to benefit it indirectly if 
at all? y... iV... f... 

4. Whose business is it to read carefully all publicity 
matter; to secure corrections of misstatements; to 
take advantage of opportunities to give information ? 

5. How many instructors or officers are retained pri- 
marily for their publicity value? Is there a paid 
publicity agent? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

6. Are modern publicity standards observed in prepar- 
ing the catalog, annual reports, and other formal 
statements? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

7. Are students of English and journalism given train- 
ing via preparation of college publicity for local 
papers Y,,. iV... f . . . ; for their home papers 
y... iV... f . . . ; for magazines and for college 
publications? Y,,, N,., ?.,. 

8. Is the mailing list carefully classified according to the 
different interests and receptivities of each constitu- 
ency? y... AT... f... 

9. Is free publicity obtained by sending news to state 
papers, educational journals, and the college page 
(Saturdays) of the New York Evening Post? 
Y N ^ . 

A commendable advertising program was carried out by 
Adelphi College in 1912. First it learned for itself the 
total number of girls in Brooklyn and Queens who were 
eligible for higher education. Then it compared the per- 
centage of eligibles in Manhattan, where colleges are ac- 
cessible, with the percentage in Brooklyn and Queens, where 
adequate college facilities were not accessible. Having got- 
ten together facts about possible registration, girls denied 
college opportunity, cost, etc., Adelphi put out these state- 
ments, one at a time, to a selected mailing list. It used 
postal cards instead of pamphlets. Its postal cards could 
be quickly read. Not too much was written at a time 
for understanding and retention. Brooklyn newspapers 
printed these items as news and commended them editori- 
ally. 



icx) Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Perhaps the best illustration of effective appealing was 
that by President Harper for the University of Chicago. 
At convocations he never failed to tell two sets of facts 
and he never failed to make these facts concrete. First, 
he listed advance steps taken by this new university. Sec- 
ondly, he listed, so that auditors and readers could not 
dodge them, several opportunities at hand for taking next 
steps that required additional money. He would describe 
the need for a science hall, tell a place on the campus where 
it ought to go, and close his appeal with words charged 
with humor and emotion: "Will not some kind friend 
fill in this unsightly gap? " 

Advice given to public-service corporations by a " con- 
sulting explainer," Mr. Ivy L. Lee, contains trenchant sug- 
gestions and cautions for colleges: An elementary requi- 
site of any sound publicity must be the giving of the best 
possible service. . . . Sound publicity involves the adop- 
tion of an attitude of citizenship. . . . The being and doing 
are far more than the saying. 

36. Analyzing College Constituency 

Occasionally a president is found who has analyzed the 
constituency from which his college may reasonably expect 
students and funds according to the laws of scientific ex- 
amination. 

Too generally " all people look alike " to colleges, a pos- 
sible donor just like a probable donor, and an improbable 
student just like a probable student. The consequence is 
that energy is wasted in trying to interest those who are 
not legitimate constituents and opportunity is wasted to en- 
list those who " rightfully belong." 

All persons living within 100 miles of the only college in 
their territory are natural constituents of a college. Every 
other college that enters that territory by even ten miles 
also makes inroads upon the reasonable constituency of stu- 
dents and donors. Even when a college is alone in a ter- 
ritory, it must recognize that many of its natural consti- 
tuents are also natural constituents of other colleges. 



Questions or Notes lOi 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



I02 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Analysis of the religious, professional, and personal ele- 
ments of a territory which is the geographical constituent 
to a college is the beginning of intelligent and frugal adver- 
tising. Whether catalogs are well placed or misplaced; 
whether high-school teachers and pupils have repeated rea- 
son to know of facilities offered by the college surveyed; 
whether neighbors with funds and interest to give are kept 
informed and interested, are questions which surveys can 
easily answer. 

Every alumnus is a constituent, whether he has children 
or not. Every sectarian preparatory school is a constitu- 
ent: first of a sectarian school of the same denomination; 
secondly of competing sectarian colleges; finally of non- 
sectarian and public colleges. Because ministers and school 
superintendents for 200 miles around are apt to know all 
boys and girls who are the subject of special worry by 
parents, it behooves every college which can offer special 
attention — e.g., supervised study — to such boys and girls 
to be sure that its offerings are understood by pastors and 
superintendents and high-school principals. 

Who and where are our natural constituents? What 
have we done to understand them ? What have we done to 
have them understand us ? 

37. Method of Meeting Criticism 

Once I collected clippings of editorials and news com- 
ments upon a proposal of great potential consequence to 
education. Surprised at the predominance of criticism, I 
went to the persons involved with suggestions for meeting 
misinformation with facts and facts with remedy. When 
I saw that their own clipping service had preserved only 
favorable comments, I gave up hope of using my evidence, 
and never exhibited my tabulation which showed that eight 
out of ten editorials were hostile. 

Many colleges keep only favorable comments. Yet one 
unfavorable criticism is more important for Tomorrow than 
a dozen bouquets. 

Within the family it is worth while asking how the col- 



Meeting Criticism — Pique or Fact? 103 

lege meets criticism. Does it frankly admit error where 
error exists, or does it equivocate and argue and confuse the 
issue ? When trustees ask for reports upon criticisms from 
within or without the faculty, do officers or faculty com- 
mittees present all the facts impersonally and draw conclu- 
sions which square with the facts? 

Every time that a college employs what in military tactics 
is called divertissement , it loses an opportunity to make and 
hold friends. In addition it loses spiritual momentum be- 
cause the divertissement operates forever after to reduce 
capacity to create and maintain friendship and support for 
the college. Tax-supported colleges least of all can afford 
to leave unsurveyed their method of meeting criticisms. 

38. Statistical Organization 

What information a college will secure depends largely 
upon the ease with which information may be secured. 
This in turn depends largely upon the extent to which the 
central office relieves the instructional force of responsi- 
bility for statistics and reports. How far and in what 
ways the central office of any college is making it easy for 
instructors to supply and use information can be found best 
by surveying the statistical organization and central-office 
methods. 

Among essentials of a proper statistical organization are 
these : 

1. The central office will ask instructors for no informa- 
tion which the central office might have at hand. 

2. It will not ask for several writings of the same fact; 
i.e., it will keep cumulative records. 

3. It will reduce to a minimum the writing that must 
be done ; i.e., it will print on a card all known alter- 
natives including different degrees (as on the per- 
sonality chart, page 257), so that a faculty member 
or other officer can with the fewest possible marks 
supply the requested information. 

4. It will do the checking, adding, etc., centrally ; and to 



104 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

reduce the number of omissions and mistakes will 
furnish space for totals up and down and from left 
to right by which reporters may check their own 
results. 

5. The results of inquiries will be furnished promptly 
to reporters, so that they will think about statistical 
work as a means of lightening their labors. 

6. There will be ample files of a modern kind, self -in- 
dexing, with dead files for reducing the number of 
cards or papers to be handled. 

7. There will be a mimeographing machine, so that one 
typing will suffice and the type matter be clear. 

8. For all routine matters there will be printed or typed 
forms that will reduce clerical work to a minimum. 

9. Files and indexes and supplies will be placed with a 
view to economizing energy and time necessary to 
use them. 

10. There will be plenty of clerical workers necessary 
for prompt analysis of returns, — an excellent op- 
portunity for training students. 

11. There will be adding machines, computing scales, 
billing machines, window envelopes; large universi- 
ties will find it profitable to have tabulating machines, 
and perhaps addressographs, and addressing and 
stamping machines. 

12. Approved practices, helpful hints, and false-syntax 
lists of practices to be avoided will be codified and 
circulated for the purpose of giving to all collabora- 
tors the methods of the most efficient collaborator. 

39. Elimination of Students 

For every college a cumulative record is needed to show 
students eliminated : 

1. From applicants for admission. 

2. From freshmen each semester. 

3. From each other class, each semester. 

4. From applicants for each advanced degree. 



Study of Dropping Out 105 

Harvard's record shows courses and half courses taken one 
or two semesters. In addition to numbers ehminated two 
sets of reasons for elimination are needed : 

1. Reasons assigned by instructors. 

2. Reasons assigned by students. 

Finally, eliminations should again be grouped to distinguish 

1. Those due to college initiative. 

2. Those due to student initiative. 

3. Those due to parents' — i.e., outside — initiative. 

If such records exist, surveyors will test the use made of 
them for testing college policy and method. 

Too much shame or pique is felt by many colleges be- 
cause of elimination. Too seldom is it recognized that 
those who "drop out" may be among the chief assets. 
Unanalyzed shame is just as unproductive as unanalyzed 
self-praise. More effort to learn and test reasons for elim- 
ination win lead to many helpful specific discoveries. 

A general request to students will bring general and often 
evasive answers. Specific requests bring specific answers. 
Carnegie Institute of Technology makes it easy to be spe- 
cific by listing on its printed form the following possible 
reasons and leaving space for others : 

Finances. Removal from city. 

Ill health of self. Overtime work. 

Ill health in family. Change of position. 

Dropped for scholarship. Course unsuited to needs. 

Dropped for conduct. 

President H. W. Hurt of McKendree writes a personal 
letter to students who fail to return which closes : Write 
me frankly today about this vital matter and I shall treat 
your letter as confidential if you so desire. 

For involuntary withdrawals self-study by the college is 
needed : 

I. Has the college done its best to save this tuition 



io6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

payer? How much does it lose each year in tui- 
tions ? 

2. How much does it waste each year on students who 
ought not to have been admitted ? 

3. How has it studied the drain upon successful stu- 
dents and upon faculty of those who fail and the 
almost- failed ? 

4. Is there supervised study (as at Miami) for those 
who show they need it ? F . . . N . . . f . . . 

5. Are first-semester failures given another chance 
under special investigation for causes and required to 
take supervised study without credit (as proposed 
for Northwestern, page 284) ? F. . . A^. . . f . . . 

6. Are students involuntarily eliminated given timely 
and specific warning? Y. , . N. , , t. . , What? 
With what other help than warning? 

7. What method is used to test the instructor's reasons ? 

8. How are " dropped out " students followed up and 
the college investment realized upon? Do records 
show which went to other colleges and which treasure 
their college memories and training? F. . . N , , , 
f . . . 

40. The Business Manager 

Is there a business manager? is the first question. The 
second is, If there is a business manager, is it the president, 
an instructor, or a full-time business agent? The third 
question is. To whom is the business manager responsible 
— the president or board of trustees or both ? 

In testing the efficiency of a manager the determining 
questions are those which relate to results. A business 
manager may have a charming personality and executive 
ability, and may be employing methods which on paper in- 
dicate efficiency, and still his results be unsatisfactory. 

Seldom will a self-survey or other survey be able to make 
a thoroughgoing study of management results. They can, 
however, take sample results as to promptness, prices, plan- 
ning, etc. They can make thorough studies of methods and 



Questions or Notes 107 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



io8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

procedure. If coal is bought by the ton rather than by the 
heat units, it is not necessary to ask a number of questions 
as to waste of money. If the weights of coal bought by 
the ton are not checked, it is not necessary to prove that the 
college is the loser. If the business agent is without power 
to prescribe the blanks on which educational officers make 
requisitions for supplies, it is not necessary to prove that 
time is wasted, inadequate investigations made, and busi- 
ness irregularities fostered. 

Details as to the manager's procedure are taken up under 
separate headings. Further questions are asked here as 
to the manager's relation to the rest of the college : 

1. What is his social status? What has been his ex- 
perience in education? 

2. Does he start with a picture of classroom needs? 
Does he consider his work educational? 

3. What educational use is made of the business man- 
ager's office by students of economics, commerce, 
etc.? 

4. Where students are employed in college business, is 
it desirable to rotate their employment so that their 
business training shall be as thorough as possible? 

Y N ^ ' 

5. Is there as much reason for having a business doc- 
tor examine the business management of an educa- 
tional institution as for having a dentist examine an 
individual's teeth? F. . . iV. . . t,., 

6. Is there an outside audit of accounts? Y,,. 
iV. . . Is the auditor's report printed? F. . . 
iV. . . f... What does it include beyond the ques- 
tion of honesty and accuracy of financial accounts? 

Y N ^ 

7. Should the business manager be held responsible for 
auditing the accuracy of non-financial statements af- 
fecting the college, including all official statements as 
to quantity and character of work done? F... 



Business as Clinical Material 109 

8. Would it promote scholarship if the business office 
were held responsible for reviewing the basis and 
character of marks given to papers; the nature of 
supervision given to graduate work; the analysis 
given to theses? F. , . N. . , f . . . 

9. Would it be well to arrange for suggestions from 
each teacher as well as from alumni as to methods 
by which dollar facts may be compared with work 
facts? y. .. AT... f... 

10. Would a committee of alumni be willing to review 
business methods? F. . . N... f . . . 

11. Would the business management of your college 
serve as a model for graduates going into business 
or a profession which presumes ability to analyze 
business? Y,,. N,,, f... 

12. Is there as much reason for having a college con- 
ducted as a laboratory of business efficiency as for 
having its classroom work a model for future 
teachers? Y.,, A/"... f... 

13. Should any student be given a degree from an Amer- 
ican college who is not familiar with the elementary 
principles of efficient business, of the science of or- 
ganization, procedure, and method, which has come 
to be known as " scientific management '' ? Is there 
any walk in life where a man cannot see straighter; 
think more precisely and logically ; read more intelli- 
gently with than without a knowledge of the reasons 
and facts of proper business procedure? In other 
words, can college management everywhere be used 
for teaching purposes with the triple result of giving 
instruction ; giving serviceable employment ; and pre- 
venting waste ? Y. . . N. . , f . . . 

Regarding one question there is much difference of opin- 
ion, i.e., whether a business agent should be responsible 
to the president, or to the board of trustees, or to both. 
This same question is puzzling city boards of education. 
The superintendent's deputies in Boston strongly protest 



I lo Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

against a business manager accountable to the city superin- 
tendent. Their protest is criticized in American School by 
Editor Pearse, president of Milwaukee Normal School, who 
had several years' experience in Milwaukee public schools 
with a business manager accountable directly to the board. 
Denver and Minneapolis have their superintendents respon- 
sible for business management, with an officer called busi- 
ness manager responsible to them. New York City is de- 
bating in November, 191 6, a separate business manager to 
be accountable to the board as advised by one survey report 
and objected to by another survey report. At the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin the business manager is responsible 
to the board and the president; at Miami, to the president. 

For any particular college it is more important to learn 
first what the facts are than to worry about the ideal or- 
ganization. Both size and ownership affect the decision. 
In a small or even a large privately supported college the 
trustees look to the president for policy and information. 
They will undoubtedly continue to prefer to deal only with 
the president. In state-supported institutions, especially 
large institutions, the situation is different. Their regents 
are acting for the public. Numerous difficulties arise as to 
the amount of money needed and as to disposition of money 
expended. In spite of theoretical objections to having co- 
ordinating officers responsible to the board of regents, it is 
probable that for some time to come the regents will wish 
an independent review from the standpoint of money avail- 
able or of so-called business efficiency, of all proposals and 
reports that come to them from the educational side. For 
a long time to come presidents will do their best to repre- 
sent their faculties in dealing with trustees. They, too, 
will welcome an efficient business manager who has no di- 
rect connection with the faculty and who therefore will act 
as a reminder of their accountability to the public. 

For states having central boards of education the prob- 
lem is solved, because no president will expect to be a su- 
perior to a business manager who represents a whole system 
of which the president is but a part. 



Business Manager and President 1 1 1 

Where there is a separate business manager accountable 
to the trustees it is of the utmost importance for self-sur- 
veys to ascertain whether the procedure adopted by the 
trustees for the president and business manager is such as 
to eliminate probability of friction and minimize its pos- 
sibility. For example: 

1. Does each officer work in the open with trustees ; i.e., 
is it made impossible for one to *' short circuit " the 
other without discovery? F. . . N.., f . . . 

2. Are the recommendations of each formally recorded, 
with reasons for their recommendations? F. . . 

3. Is the budget so made that the frankest and fullest 
suggestions are drawn from the faculty and presi- 
dent? Y,.. N... r... 

4. Must the business manager submit to the president 
all communications to the faculty as to business pro- 
cedure, in order that the president's educational ex- 
perience and judgment may be reflected as well as 
the business manager's? F. . . N. . , f . . . 

5. Does current practice encourage faculty members and 
president to initiate suggestions or criticisms regard- 
ing college business? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

Where there is a separate business manager, it should be 
possible at a minimum of expense to organize the clearing 
house for information referred to later as a division of ref- 
erence and research. 

41. Division of Reference and Research 

The only thing " under the heavens, on earth, or in the 
waters which encompass the earth " that American colleges 
have not as yet felt it incumbent upon them to study is the 
college itself. Is it any one's business in your college to 
study the college; how its work compares with that of 
other colleges; what if any gap there is between plan and 
performance? 



112 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

After surveys are made faculties and students will ask 
more, not fewer, questions; will make more, not fewer, 
criticisms and constructive suggestions. 

Can waste of faculty insight be prevented? The only 
way to reservoir, conserve, and use it is to establish a 
reservoir and provide channels of ingress and egress. This 
can be done by a clearing house, whether called division 
of reference and research, or clearing house, or what not. 




Every college purchases every year books and magazines 
and receives catalogs and reports from other colleges. In 
addition faculty members and officers privately subscribe 
to magazines and professional journals, and exchange ex- 
periences with colleagues in other colleges. Because no one 
place or person has been designated as a " hopper '' or 
** reservoir " or " clearing house " to receive suggestions, 
it has not been worth while saving and passing on to others 
the facts, questions, suggestions, or criticisms which come 
with printed matter, verbal exchange, and experience. Few 
of us want to be called " Mr. Fixit." 

Many smaller colleges cannot yet afford to pay a person 
to give time exclusively to " clearing " information and 
making studies. No small college, however, is without the 
faculty members who would gladly be detailed to this task. 



Spectrum-ing Facts and Suggestions 113 

A short study will show for every college the need for 
some such continuous cumulative attention to questions that 
need answers; suggestions that prompt examination; crit- 
icisms that call for remedial action. Only through the cir- 
culation of suggestions and questions can faculties demo- 
cratically organize for cooperative service. 

In a short test of " high spotting " and central " clear- 
ing," helpful facts and suggestions from educational pub- 
lications, including reports from other colleges, will disclose 
innumerable aids like these ; 

Columbia University is substituting personality prepared- 
ness for credit preparedness. 

Yale's report, 19 14, has the best available discussion of 
relations between research and teaching efficiency. 

Smith found that analyzing and publishing faculty teach- 
ing loads helped secure additional instructors. 

Illinois Wesleyan's financial summaries are printed in 

Bowdoin's report discusses the preceptorial system, with 
notes as to cost and results. 

The University of Wisconsin's biennial report for 1914- 
191 6 announces the results, following the survey, of a 
large faculty committee with special subcommittees to 
consider the improvement of the university with rela- 
tion to (a) undergraduate instruction; (b) research, 
graduate, and field work; (c) foreign-language re- 
quirements; (d) faculty requirements, physical plant. 

1. An honor point system has been adopted to stimu- 
late the student who has the habit of getting a 
passing mark only. 

2. Systematic methods for improving and correlat- 
ing instruction in various departments have been 
undertaken. 

3. To facilitate and improve research work related 
departments of instruction have been grouped. 

4. A course of study without foreign-language re- 
quirements has been established. 



1 14 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

5. Faculty organization has been simplified by the 
appointment (a) of a university committee; (b) 
of an administrative committee to take care of 
routine business; and (c) of a secretary of the 
faculty to keep faculty records [a full professor]. 

6. A new system of keeping faculty records has been 
installed to secure greater uniformity and economy 
in administration. 

7. Efficient utilization of the physical plant is being 
studied by a special committee. 

Miami University drops a student from a class for three 
unexplained absences or for being found unprepared 
without acceptable excuses fiwt times during a semester ; 
makes its dormitories pay 3% interest; has all but 
one department head teaching freshmen; reduced its 
classes of ten or fewer from 25 to lo^o ; loans books 
to country normal schools; gives practice teaching in 
rural schools; has an executive committee of the fac- 
ulty for administration; permits invitations to fra- 
ternities at any time after matriculation; prohibits 
ostentatious or extravagant rushing; is considering 
exchange lectures within departments. 

Kansas State Board of Administration recommends 
charging a fee for all student activities, thus making 
more certain general participation. 

Harvard in 1915-1916 sent a questionnaire to graduates 
asking about the relative value of various methods of 
instruction — lectures, classroom discussion, assigned 
reading, reports, essays, or theses. Students' answers 
ascribed most value to reading next to classroom dis- 
cussion. " Leading business men have expressed their 
willingness to give summer employment to students 
of the graduate school of business and administration 
and to cooperate with the school by returning at the 
end of the period of employment a report of the work 
of the student, . . . which report is an important con- 
sideration in recommending students for a permanent 
position after graduation." 



High-Spotting Other Colleges 115 

North Dakota conducts a series of round table discus- 
sions at times when regular classes are not in session, 
so that all may attend. 

University of Cincinnati requires prospective teachers 
to do practice work in public schools under super- 
vision; students of commerce must take three years 
of work in business and under the supervision of the 
faculty make a carefully planned study of the business 
in which they are engaged. This involves regular re- 
ports and conferences. Failure in business means re- 
fusal of degree. Similar practice work for students 
preparing for social service is afforded through chari- 
ties and social settlements. 

New York University announces business fellowships in 
commerce, — one-half time to business houses and the 
other half to studies. 

Kansas State Agricultural College has a class for boys 
and girls in livestock judging; extension work of 
project clubs in crop growing, stock feeding, garden- 
ing, sewing; resulting products valued at $107,000 in 
1916; furnishes advice as to roads and bridges. 

Colgate University gfives in absentia courses for master's 
degree to graduates "whose career since graduation 
gives clear evidence of earnest and successful effort 
toward intellectual development." 

Wesleyan, Conn., requires shop training via summer plan 
in manufacturing plants and local field work in central 
heating plant of the college, through power-plant tests 
in and near Middlebury, and by hydraulic work. 

Sheffield Scientific School requires eleven weeks in sum- 
mer field work in surveying; two weeks between the 
third and fourth years in railroad surveying ; six weeks 
in making a geological map of some portion of the 
country ; two weeks in making a survey map of a mine. 
At instructor's option two-hour sessions may be substi- 
tuted for outside preparation to insure personal super- 
vision in the working of problems and drill in techni- 
cal manipulation. 



ii6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

North Carolina University students conducted six moon- 
light schools of 300 pupils, regularly conduct Sunday 
schools, night schools, and Y. M. C. A. for negroes; 
in 19 1 6 ran a free lecture lyceum for several churches 
and schools the country round. 

University of California g^ives extension courses in the 
state penitentiary; president visits each infirmary once 
a month; department of correction of speech defects 
is conducted. 

Ohio State University offers help in city building. 

Oberlin : " It ought to mean something to this whole 
region that Oberlin College is planted right here." 
With these words President King explains why he 
raises in his annual report for 1915-1916, pages 135 ff., 
questions of still larger usefulness of college to com- 
munity ; e.g., " What of still better sanitary conditions? 
What of a full-salaried and scientifically trained health 
ofificer? What of possibilities in the direction of the 
city manager plan ? " 

University of Montana provides movable schools for the 
convenience of farmers ; each school has the service of 
from four to six teachers one week at a time. 

University of Chicago skives full college credit for work 
of college grade done in high schools if during the 
first two quarters at the university student maintains 
an average standing of B or better; if he drops to less 
than B he gets one-half credit; if he falls below C 
no college credit is allowed. 

University of Minnesota prohibits full-time members of 
the faculty from engaging in any outside activity 
" which substantially interferes with their university 
duties " ; two farms put in charge of two senior 
" agrics," degrees being given upon successful conduct 
of farm; cooperative housekeeping encouraged; a 
legal-aid bureau conducted by law students; practice 
teaching is done in high schools; summer camp for 
civil engineers ; night classes in engineering and archi- 
tecture; school of public health was worked out by 











J"" 




mm 


m 


1 


1 


1- 


^_ 






'..';i>»^~ 



Serving those who pay the bills 



University of Minnesota 




Learning to test corn by testing corn Minnesota 

Short courses for farmers are good investments 



High-Spotting Other Colleges 117 

engineering and medical faculties; home management 
was tested in a 15-room house, college credit being 
given; established municipal reference bureau under 
auspices of State League of Municipalities; gives 
courses in sex hygiene for men; insists "that there 
can be no departmental or college proprietorship in 
the buildings, and that space anywhere that is not 
absolutely needed for college or departmental purposes 
shall be available for general university use '' ; the uni- 
versity declares that the high-school course " must be 
adapted to the needs of the great majority who cannot 
pursue higher education. College and university must 
therefore adapt themselves to the high school as a peo- 
ple's college." 

University of Nebraska has a central stenographic bureau 
as Ohio State University has central bureaus for each 
college and has effected considerable saving by center- 
ing all business offices; e.g., 6% on electric lamps. 

University of Michigan has courses for field training of 
men for public service, including cooperative arrange- 
ments with the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Re- 
search. 

University of Missouri has recently started a municipal 
reference bureau. 

Reed College is helping on examinations and with papers 
for the civil service department of Portland ; is giving 
courses at the City Hall for city employees on city 
time; has recently issued a report of five years' work 
on social hygiene in Oregon by eight faculty mem- 
bers with students; has extension courses organized 
by students at which, for example, President Foster is 
giving lectures at the college and about the city " on 
rural politics today," and business men give talks on 
commercial and industrial methods. 

North Carolina University reports the occupations and 
professions of students' parents; declares that $300 a 
year is ample for comfortable living; has introduced 
the plan of reading for honors by which students of 



ii8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

unusual ability and intellectual curiosity are given wide 
and independent reading and stimulated in lines of 
independent investigation; requires one year of resi- 
dence before any student may represent the university 
in a major sport; proposes two summer sessions of six 
weeks each; has made 173 community studies and pub- 
lished 62 booklets on countryside studies; circulates 
weekly 9000 copies of its newsletter; has a special 
course for practicing pediatrists. 

Smith assigns four freshmen to a junior adviser and 
30 to a faculty adviser ; publishes sizes of classes " to 
show scientifically where additions to the teaching 
force are needed." 

Tufts publishes a report of diagrams on right-hand page 
and short editorial summary on the left; in last five 
years increased students 47% but expenses only 15% ; 
shows by spot map the sources of students. 

42. The College Budget 

Although the word " budget " is new in college manage- 
ment, the idea is old. Very few colleges ever undertake 
to finance the next year without having approximated costs 
and income. 

But approximating is not budgeting, and with few excep- 
tions colleges today want to put their business on a budget 
basis; i.e., on a plan carefully worked out at least a year 
in advance. In few instances will surveyors need to per- 
suade presidents and trustees that the budget method will 
help finance colleges. The few exceptions are colleges 
which thrive on unexpected deficits and hard-luck stories. 
Even in these cases there is more budgeting than is usually 
admitted and more system in the hard-luck story than is 
apparent. 

If colleges have budgets, surveyors will ask questions like 
these : 

I. When is the budget voted? How much time is 
given by trustees to considering it at board meetings ? 



Budgeting opportunities 119 

How long in advance of dates for consideration is 
the budget in the hands of individual trustees ? How 
much time elapses between the call for budget esti- 
mates and the date for submitting them to the presi- 
dent and the date when the president submits them 
to trustees? 

2. Does the budget initiate with the trustees . . . , with 
the president . . . , or with departments . . . ? 

3. Is it possible for departmental estimates to be made 
without departmental conferences? F. . . N.., 
f. . . 

4. Is the budget based upon work estimates for next 
year ... or upon this year's money facts . . . ? 

5. In the case of publicly supported colleges, is the bud- 
get considered at meetings open to the public? 

Y N ^ 

6. Is the tentative budget shown to departmental rep- 
resentatives before its submission to trustees? 
Y... N... f... 

7. Does the tentative budget which goes to trustees 
show at a glance where it differs from the current 
year's budget Y . . , N . , ,, which salaries are in- 
creased F. . . N . , ., which activities extended 
y . . . N . , ., with and without budgetary authoriza- 
tion F. . . N . . ,, which positions discontinued F. . . 
iV..., and why? F. . . AT... f... 

8. Are increases separately totalled so that they are not 
lost by inclusion with decreases in other items . . . , 
or are salary increases of $1000 passed over because 
a $1000 vacancy or reductions aggregating $1000 
leave the total the same . . . ? 

9. Is the budget adhered to during the year; i.e., are 
expenditures in excess of allowances prohibited? 

Y , N ^ 

10. Is elasticity provided by permitting transfers from 
activities which do not need all the money voted to 
other activities which require more than was voted? 
F. . . iV... .^. . . Must request for such trans- 



120 Self -Surveys by 'Colleges and Universities 

fers be made to trustees? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 
Are all such transfers summarized? Y.., N... 
f , . , Does the tentative budget show where trans- 
fers were made last year ? Y . . , N, . , f . . . 

11. How many periods are compared in the estimates 
— two years ... three years . . . ? 

12. How detailed are comparisons? 

13. How definitely are all changes from this year's plans 
explained in writing; i.e., are general terms or spe- 
cific evidences given? Is anticipated registration 
justified by previous registration? Does an increase 
*' mainly for instructional force" include increases 
in salaries? 

14. Are blanks furnished to all parties who take part in 
budget making, so as to make it easy to supply in- 
formation requested? y. . . iV. . . f... 

15. Are new activities considered with a view to their 
final cost when developed ... or is only the cost of 
the entering wedge . . . presented ? 

In the case of state institutions further questions need 
to be asked separately with respect to the information pre- 
sented by trustees to the legislature: 

1. Is the request printed ... or mimeographed . . . ? 

2. Is it distributed to all legislators . . . and public . . . 
or only to legislative finance committees . . . ? 

3. Are specific amounts above or below this year's ap- 
propriation unescapably presented? F. . . iV... 
f. . . 

4. When stating this year's cost, are accruals — i.e., sums 
provided but not used — subtracted from the budget 
allowances ? F . . . N. , , f.,. Requested 
spending power should be compared with cost in- 
curred in budget allowances. On the other hand, 
where cost has exceeded the budget both facts should 
be stated, so that policy changes since last budget 
time will be questioned and explained. 

Budgeting without explaining will help colleges some- 




Students of engineering help build bridges 



University of Cincinnati 




Future engineers work on section gangs 

In-and-out plan reduces capital costs 



Cincinnati 



Budgets — Essential Steps 1 2 1 

what, but only slightly. It will prevent accidental deficits, 
reduce hectic financing, and inure the whole college or- 
ganization to living within its income, trying to get the ut- 
most from its income, and looking before it leaps. Those 
colleges will benefit most from budgeting their resources and 
plans which use the budget-making period as a season for 
taking account of stock ; i.e., for challenging new proposals 
and existing practices. Budgets will not prevent deficits. 
Columbia voted for 1917 a deficit of $93,000; " this means 
that the normal income . . . falls far short of meeting the 
necessary cost of work now established and in progress.'* 
A possible deficit seen a year ahead is easier to remove than 
a surprise deficit already created. Few people like to " pay 
for dead horses." A prospective deficit is the only hard- 
luck story, i.e., alternative, a college is warranted in telling. 
To colleges which have not as yet adopted a budget the 
two best steps for surveyors to take are, first to cite some 
concrete instances of disadvantages suffered because a bud- 
get plan is not in use, — i.e., disagreement as to salary ; di- 
version of funds to meet unexpected deficits; harassing of 
administrative ofBcers. Secondly, presidents and faculties 
can be referred to colleges already benefiting from a budget 
system. Record Aids in College Management reproduced 
blanks employed by Smith College and Kansas, Idaho, and 
Minnesota universities. Minimum essential steps include 
these : 

1. A fixed date for consideration of budget estimates 
by trustees and earlier fixed dates for submission to 
trustees by the president ; for submission to president 
or budget committee by departments ; for distributing 
estimate blanks to all parties whose forecast is 
needed. 

2. Preparation of uniform blanks by a central office 
which will reduce to the minimum the clerical work 
required of departments and will contain a maxi- 
mum of suggestions to departments, — i.e., will fur- 
nish all the classifications ; will have separate columns 



122 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

for separate periods ; will have a separate column for 
increases ; another for decreases ; another for reasons. 
For example, Smith College asks departments to re- 
port only departures from statu quo; the central of- 
fice has salaries and other facts for the existing or- 
ganization. Separate blanks are sent for staff 
changes, equipment changes, supplies, library, etc. 

3. Request to all participants that estimates include what 
they think the college needs to have done or oppor- 
tunity makes it desirable to do next year, with rea- 
sons, leaving it to administrative of^cers to discover 
how much the college can do. Where dollars are es- 
timated, the numbers or extent of work to be done 
should be specified. 

4. Departmental conferences for frank comparison of 
alternatives presented for each department. 

5. Interdepartmental conferences; i.e., all departments 
of college or university for comparison of alterna- 
tives as they affect each group as a whole. 

6. Compilation of estimates by clerks, on forms which 
show clearly changes, increases, or decreases, with 
reasons. 

7. A similar procedure on separate blanks to secure es- 
timates of resources and income; i.e., probable 
amounts from tuition, fees, interest, gifts, mill tax. 

8. Consideration by president or budget committee of 
total work program and money program expressed in 
composite budget estimates, and allotment of revenue 
among purposes according to necessity and desir- 
ability. 

9. A permanent record of the deliberations of the budget 
committee and reasons for its allowances and disal- 
lowances. In few cases will it be impossible to have 
satisfactory minutes taken. In large institutions 
stenographic notes are desirable, especially where pub- 
lic funds are spent and where later stages of budget 
discussion are apt to involve controversies or special 
pleas for public support. Stenographic notes, except 



Budgets — Essential Steps 123 

for obviously important matters, need not be tran- 
scribed; to have them available, however, may save 
a building or an appropriation. 

10. Resubmission of tentative budget, with reasons, to 
faculty before final submission to trustees for action. 
This seemingly needless referendum can do no harm 
and will make for democracy, solidarity, and good 
spirit. In the few cases where hard feeling may re- 
sult, it will be no harder because interested parties 
receive information before rather than after it is too 
late to appeal and to present new evidence. 

11. Submission of the estimate to the trustees, with rea- 
sons in writing why the president or budget com- 
mittee have recommended allowances or disallow- 
ances. Verbal explanations are not enough. Few 
minds can learn through the ear facts necessary to 
follow comprehendingly a rapid verbal exposition of 
a year's program. Trustees should be encouraged 
to read understandingly a college program before they 
sponsor it. Where a committee, finance or executive, 
of trustees has reviewed estimates, its recommenda- 
tions should come to the full board with unescapable 
comparisons and with unescapable explanations in 
writing — and long enough in advance so that rubber 
stamping its conclusions will not be easier than 
reading them. 

12. The final consideration of the recommended budget 
by the full board should be made a matter of record. 
Where questions are asked answers should be taken 
from records, not hearsay. 

13. The final budget as passed should be set up in com- 
parative form, showing increases and decreases, with 
reasons. 

14. As part of every budget it should be provided that the 
budget be treated as a sailing order or working pro- 
gram ; that this program may not be changed without 
consent of the trustees or persons delegated by them, 
— i.e., that funds voted for extension should not 



124 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

be used for increasing salaries ; that accounting head- 
ings should conform to budget headings; that unex- 
pended items should revert to the general fund under 
control of the trustees and not be disposed of by offi- 
cers without consulting trustees ; that entering wedges 
for new activities should not be driven without con- 
sulting trustees. 
15. The budget as voted should be promulgated through- 
out the college for information, advice, and authoriza- 
tion to spending officers. 

Besides helping trustees decide how to spend assured in- 
come, the properly prepared budget estimate will help trus- 
tees raise money. Evidence of need is the best money getter. 
The most convincing evidence of need is the budget esti- 
mate, through which faculties make clear what they are not 
yet able to do, the least they should be able to do next year, 
and the maximum they should like to be authorized to do. 

One way to hasten proper budget making by colleges 
would be to require every college to teach the principles of 
public budget making. Instead of regretting the necessity 
for explaining to each legislature what higher education is 
trying to do, should not our state universities welcome the 
opportunity to make higher education part of the thinking 
of legislature and public ? 

43. Record Forms Are Educational Indexes 

Few people are interested in blank forms yet. Most 
people still find them dead, unsuggestive, boring, necessary 
evils. That, however, is because most people do not yet 
understand forms. Many surveyors are bored at the 
thought of looking at forms. Many college administrators 
are unable to read with understanding the forms through 
which they themselves are giving account of their own stew- 
ardship. Yet surveyors cannot afford to overlook the record 
system. Among the most interesting facts about a college 
are blank forms ; they tell a great deal more about its man- 
agement and its men than does many a catalog or report. 




Not \-et used for instruction 



Carleton College 




An important laboratory Berea College 

Photographs help inform and interest trustees 



Surveying Record Forms 125 

Because some people are so interested in questions about 
money and students that they forget actual students and 
real money is not a reflection upon the questions or the 
forms on which the questions are printed. 

Show any surveyor familiar with college management and 
with the ideals of higher education what forms are used by 
your college in describing where the money goes; who the 
students are; where they come from; where they go; and 
what is done for them while there, and he will tell you more 
about the human and inspirational side of your college than 
most of its trustees know. Show an accountant the forms 
used in recording expenditures, purchases, contracts, in- 
spections, etc., and he can tell you more about the business 
efficiency of your college than can an examination of months 
which fails to include business forms. 

Whatever else, therefore, is done in a survey or self- 
survey, a searching analysis should be made of record forms 
as indexes to purposes and achievements. 

A composite of helpful forms in use by colleges entitled 
Record Aids in College Management was issued in 1916 by 
the Institute for Public Service, 51 Chambers Street, New 
York City. Any college which is found not to possess any 
part of the information there listed as called for by one or 
more colleges can be immediately helped by the discovery. 

While it is possible for a business to have superior 
methods that are not reflected in its record forms, this hap- 
pens seldom. Surveyors will, with few exceptions, find that 
any questions not found on college record forms are not 
being asked for purposes of administration. It is equally 
true that record forms may contain questions which ad- 
ministrators never ask. Finding questions on forms is 
therefore but a first step and must be followed by a study of 
filled-out forms and of used information. 

One great advantage of having forms studied at the out- 
set of a survey is that without waiting for the survey re- 
ports the whole machinery of administration may be en- 
listed in laying the basis for future current self -surveys. It 
is better to spend time in getting current and future facts 



126 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

properly recorded than in unearthing and reclassifying old 
facts. 

A greater readiness will be found to admit the inadequacy 
of record forms than to admit the inadequacy of the work 
these forms describe. When, therefore, information begins 
to come currently, it is more comfortable for officers to 
correct unfavorable conditions disclosed than to keep facing 
any unfavorable story that may be told by proper records. 

1. What records "clear" through the central office? 

2. What records are currently kept by university and 
college, college departments, instructors, and commit- 
tees that have not heretofore been sent to or inter- 
preted for the central office? 

3. How easy is it for officers wishing forms to secure 
them ? 

4. Are files and indexes provided? F. . . AT. . . 

5. Is the college liberal ... or skimpy . . . with the cler- 
ical aid necessary to make record keeping easy? 

6. Are forms themselves devised to minimize clerical 
work? F... AT... 

7. Do those who fill out forms feel that the information 
recorded is helpfully used . . . ; is obstructively used 
. . . ; is neglected . . . ? 

It is not enough that financial reports comply with the 
technical requirements of the General Education Board, Car- 
negie Foundation, or stock-exchange practice. There are 
other friends to be made and informed besides great founda- 
tions. With few exceptions colleges will continue to de- 
pend for support and growth upon men and women not able 
to be interested or informed by a certified-public-account- 
ant type of financial statement. 

The idea underlying technical financial statements is par- 
tially to impart information and partially to prevent misrep- 
resentation. It is important that colleges shall not treat en- 
dowments as current contributions and that they shall not 
classify repairs as permanent improvements or bills owed as 
bills paid. But in preventing misrepresentation and im- 



Humanising Financial Reports 127 

proper business procedure proper accounting has not in mind 
making it impossible to convey information to those who 
receive the report. If a financial statement is uninteresting, 
it fails to convey information. It has no reason for exist- 
ing except to transmit certain facts from the college to the 
minds of donors, possible donors, managers, interested and 
critical public. 

The kind of inform.ation which colleges want to transmit 
is information about college service and not merely about 
dollars spent. 

Any audience worth reaching with a financial statement 
is too important to be left uninterested in the human reasons 
for which money was received and spent. 

In answer to questions with regard to a financial report 
which one university president asked us to analyze, the pres- 
ident replied in part as follows : 

" I must say you have made some very valuable sug- 
gestions. I think with you that human interest facts 
would help among the people who have but a slight in- 
terest in financial reports." 

A few of the questions referred to may prove helpful to 
self -surveyors : 

1. Is it not true that large possible donors, including the 
General Education Board, are susceptible to the hu- 
man appeal even if they do not prescribe it? Is it 
not desirable, therefore, in financial statements iso- 
lated from educational reports to indicate the number 
of students involved and to give other human interest 
facts ? 

2. Is not your success in getting out a financial state- 
ment by June 5 an asset worth specially noting, per- 
haps in the auditing committee's report? 

3. Is it not important also to have an audit of report of 
service rendered as to accuracy of service statement? 
Since the auditors are board members, would it 
not be worth while to indicate the amount of time 
which they give to this important service ? 



128 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

4. While complying with financial requirements, is it not 
desirable also for a college which has a deficit and 
needs further endowment not to let even a page or 
two intervene between the first statement of a fact 
and the interpretation of it? In other words, after 
the accountant's statement, would it help get money 
if you printed explanatory phrases that would make 
informing and interesting reading to your constitu- 
ency? For example, may not the phrase " subject to 
life estates " be so defined as to encourage people to 
give you other similarly restricted estates ? Is it not 
true that the words " special endowment " will fail to 
make any personal appeal, whereas a descriptive 
phrase or two added might make several of your read- 
ers want to add to this fund ? 

5. As you are one of the very few colleges in the coun- 
try which report unpaid bills and accounts receivable, 
would it not be worth while making a point of this in 
the auditing committee's report? 

6. Can you not, with a few additional words after each 
item, make this a very human page and add chiefly 
to your appealing power ? For me to read of a Blank 
fund of $1000 stirs no impulse to give, whereas a 
Blank fund for helping a high-school girl to college, 
etc., etc., might make a thousand dollars seem small 
compared with what it could buy. 

7. Is there not many a possible patron who will wonder 
why, if you get 5J4% or 6% in a dozen cases, you 
cannot do it in 30? Will an explanation help which 
would meet the foregoing question and at the same 
time answer some conservatives who may feel that a 
6% loan must be unsafe? 

8. Would not your people be interested in the number 
of pledges received and the number of persons? 

9. May not the campaign-expense table do you harm if 
it is not made clear that the large sums expended 
brought in the campaign receipts mentioned earlier? 



Reading Is Not Always Understanding 129 

44. Character of Financial Reports 

Minimum essentials of financial reporting have been set 
up by the Carnegie Foundation. Several colleges have gone 
beyond these minimum essentials. Any college which is 
able to report its financial transactions under the heads listed 
on page 131 may consider itself reasonably up to date. How 
much further subclassification should be carried depends 
upon the volume and variety of business. 

One fact about financial reporting is universally over- 
looked ; viz., that a small fraction of the persons who receive 
financial reports know how, or care to know how, to see 
the educational forces reflected by a technically correct finan- 
cial statement. Yet to have technically correct financial 
statements is becoming more and more essential. Upon 
them depends the ability bf colleges to serve students and 
patrons. Unless a way is found to combine flesh-and-blood 
background with financial statements, many of our colleges 
will discover that their earnest efforts to deserve support 
will cause them to lose support. 

Surveyors can help materially. They can show where 
financial statements because of length or technicalities chill 
the reader's interest in work for students. Secondly, they 
can suggest points at which the financial statement itself, in- 
cluding the most technical of its technicalities, can be inter- 
lined, interpolated, and explained so that every patron can 
understand. 

For Carleton College and for a special committee of the 
Association of American Colleges, President D. J. Cowling 
has been studying principles and practices of report making. 
For his own report for June 30, 191 6, he uses the general 
divisions given on page 131. 

The distinctions between four kinds of receipts — i.e., 
(a) current income, (b) income for additions to assets, (c) 
assets reduced, and (d) debt increased — are important to 
notice and follow. 

Similarly, on the expenditure side it is important to dis- 
tinguish between expenses for current purposes and what 



130 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

President Cowling calls income for additions to assets. Be- 
cause many financial statements fail to make these distinc- 
tions, unnecessary and expensive confusion is caused in the 
minds of college supporters, especially when legislatures 
stand as representatives of supporters. 

One question of President Cowling's letter will interest 
college fiscal officers ; namely, should receipts from scholar- 
ship funds appear once to explain source of funds or shall 
it, in accordance with the practices of private business, 
appear four times? For example, in the report for Carle- 
ton College $1280 appears first as a receipt for scholarship 
purposes; on the expenditure side this same $1280 appears 
as a charge for scholarship aid ; thus the books balance. A 
third time, without being segregated, this $1280 appears as 
tuition received from students. Still a fourth time it ap- 
pears without segregation as part of salaries and wages or 
other current expenses. 

President Cowling asks if there is not unnecessary book- 
keeping plus an overstatement of operations involved in this 
method of showing the transactions arising out of interest 
from scholarship funds. 

Another practice which President Cowling questions is 
that of reporting on both sides of the financial statement 
the total receipts and total expenditures for what are here 
later called revolving funds. In his own report he pub- 
lishes the net receipts for the boarding department and the 
net deficits of two rooming houses. If lectures bring in 
more than they cost, the net profit only would be reported ; 
e.g., last year only the net deficit of $360 was reported. 

The General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York 
City, will soon issue for circulation upon request a hand- 
book on college accounting, which has been two years in 
preparation and will be based upon visits to many colleges. 
(Application to the above address will bring you all publica- 
tions of this foundation.) 



A Helpful Outline 



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132 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

45. Bookkeeping Methods 

The General Education Board announced in 19 15 its in- 
tention to prepare a handbook on college bookkeeping, pre- 
sumably for free circulation from 61 Broadway, New York 
City. It is undesirable to repeat here the concrete tests of 
bookkeeping. There is no justification for hiring outside 
surveyors to report on the bookkeeping methods of any col- 
lege. There are certified public accountants in every state 
within easy reach of every college. There are numerous 
handbooks on bookkeeping. Many colleges are themselves 
teaching bookkeeping. Alumni know modern methods. 
Once decided that bookkeeping methods must be put on a 
modern basis, it is easy to secure within a week a statement 
as to where bookkeeping methods are not up to date. 

Surveyors, however, must not fail to look early at book- 
keeping methods. Any inadequateness will be easily dis- 
closed. While the survey is progressing in other directions, 
the bookkeeping methods can be reorganized. 

Among questions as to bookkeeping that vitally affect 
education are these : 

1. Is a separate account kept for each main activity, so 
that the high cost of one subject will not be lost in an 
average which contains the low cost of other subjects ? 
Y N ^ 

-c 9 • • XV » • • • • • • 

2. Are job and unit costs shown for educational jobs and 
units as well as for construction units and repair 
units ; i.e., do accounts show how much is spent for re- 
search y. . . N. . ., for particular investigations F. . . 
N. . ,, for each student hour in each subject F. . . 
N ? 

X V • « * . 

3. Is total cost shown rather than only that part of cost 
for which money has been paid out ; i.e., are supplies 
bought the preceding year but used this year included 
in this year's cost? Y.., A/"... Are supplies 
bought and used but not paid for this year included 
in this year's cost? F. . . N,,, Are supplies 
bought this year but not used excluded from this 



Bookkeeping Tests 133 

year's cost ? Y . , . N . . . Is insurance distributed 
over all the years for which it is paid instead of being 
charged to the year when paid? F... iV... Is 
depreciation charged to provide for replacement of 
equipment and buildings ? Y . . , N, , , Are 
moneys due but not yet received credited to the year 
when they should have been received ? Y,., A^... 
Is the cost of each dormitory kept separate and are 
different elements of dormitory and dininghall cost 
recorded separately? Y.,, N,., Are dormitory 
costs excluded from statements of educational cost; 
i.e., are strictly business items, revolving funds, etc., 
accounted for separately so as not to misrepresent 
management costs? Y, , , AT. . . Is there a care- 
ful separation of costs for current operation from 
costs for permanent improvement? F. . . N... 
? . . , 

4. Are trust funds used only for the purposes for which 
given? F... AT... .^... 

5. Are costs charged only under the right heads? F. . . 
A/". . . ? , , , For instance, is the bookkeeper pro- 
hibited from charging to " educational conventions '* 
money spent in looking about for teachers? 

6. Is an automatic classification used ; i.e., do the record 
forms call for entering each charge under the proper 
head each and every time it is entered instead of en- 
tering all charged under one head and then requiring 
a special sifting for monthly or annual reports? 

7. Is a cumulative summary reported each month F. . . 
A/" . . . and compared both with the program for the 
year . . . and with last year's experience . . . ? 

8. Is a balance sheet possible from the books as kept? 
F. . . A/". . . Is a balance sheet actually made up 
. . . and submitted to the trustees and public? F. . . 

N ? 

9. Do the books give the minimum of requirements listed 
in reports of the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching? F. . . N . . , f . ... 



134 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

10. In what ways is financial bookkeeping correlated with 
educational bookkeeping so that each phase of col- 
lege work is studied with reference to its educational 
significance and its cost? How does college book- 
keeping compare with the methods thought to be es- 
sential in college classes? How far is college book- 
keeping used as clinical opportunity for students of 
bookkeeping ? Does the college exact as high a stand- 
ard from its official bookkeeping as it exacts from its 

student activities' bookkeeping ? F . . . N . , , 
? 

* • • • 

46. Purchasing Methods 

The main losses in college purchasing are due to failure 
to centralize facts about it ; i.e., to make it some one officer's 
business to foresee the year's probable purchases; to study 
market possibilities ; to secure lowest possible prices for low- 
est reasonable quantities ; to take care and keep account of 
goods purchased, as cashiers do of cash. 

A survey of dates, quantities, and prices of purchases 
will not take long and will usually show many opportunities 
to make money go farther. There is only so much money 
available for purchasing. Additional needs can be more 
easily provided for out of savings than out of additional 
appropriations. 

1. Is there a central storehouse? Y , , , N. . . ?, » . 

May any one go and take supplies out of it ... or 

must supplies be requisitioned on business forms 
? 

• • % • 

2. Is a laboratory fitted out by consulting a catalog . . . 
or by listing the needs of particular courses . . . and 
by having these listed, reviewed, and certified by a 
department . . . and again checked by a central pur- 
chasing agent . . . responsible for securing what de- 
partments consider adequate at the lowest possible 
price ? 

3. How far are major supplies bought by competition? 



*-''•• '■■^:.'-^-:;;4.^;:0Lfiy: 



MAS REED COLLEGE REACHED TOUR hOME ? 

6tutJy lh(6 map flake inqiilclM 

M circles locate Extension Courses of previous yeats 
A Yellow (riangles locoti Coutmi now bein; ^fven 
• DIack circles locote commiuiltr services of Reed students 
»:• DIack crossw show /where R?«d teachers have made addresses 

Oreen circles lorofe honx^s of Iteed students 




I Reed College and its City- Wide Campus 



Kducalional bookkeeping needs illustraLions 



Purchasing Methods — Tests 135 

4. Is coal bought by the British thermal unit ... or by 
the unanalyzed ton . . . ? 

5. Are staple supplies bought from hand to mouth at 
retail prices ... or in advance for a year ... at the 
seasons of lowest wholesale prices? 

6. Are the record blanks, letterheads, etc., of economical 
sizes? F... N.,. f,., 

7. Does the central office make it easy for every person 
having to do with articles purchased to employ the 
best modern procedure ; i.e., are there blanks for esti- 
mate requests, description of use, etc. ? Y, , . N,. , 
? . . . 

8. Is the energy which instructors, deans, and presidents 
need to give to purchasing reduced to a minimum by 
purchasing methods ? F. . . A^. . . ?,,, 

9. Are laboratory supplies safeguarded as carefully as if 
the college rather than the students paid for them? 

47. Unit Costs of Other than Instructional Service 

Long before educational measurements were worked out, 
the business world had standardized the cost of building; of 
repairs; of dietaries; and of road making. To find out 
whether a building is economically constructed the architect 
asks how much it cost per cubic foot. If a builder estimates 
25 cents a cubic foot, the architect does not take up in detail 
all the estimate, because he knows that in a given locality 
the construction cost should not exceed 18 cents per cubic 
foot. He never loses sight of his unit. 

The business caterer never loses sight of the catering unit ; 
viz., the portion served per meal per person. Well-managed 
college dormitories have worked out units of service by 
which they can tell from week to week whether in their use 
of sugar, fruits, flour, coal, and attendants they are living 
within the budget made possible by their charges to students. 
See Miami report 191 6, page 206. 

Are coal prices in terms of British thermal units, and fuel 
costs in terms of cubic feet? Piling up questions will not 



136 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

help. The minute an administrator admits that he has no 
unit costs, and that he is not trying to find them but would 
like to find them, the accounting technique necessary to 
record and disclose them already exists in numerous ac- 
counting textbooks. 

The surveyor's problem is to interest colleges in the cer- 
tainty that money will go farther if, at slight cost, mere ex- 
pense keeping is supplemented by cost keeping and unit-cost 
or job-cost accounting. I was once secretary of the New 
York Committee on Hospital Needs and Hospital Finances. 
When it was suggested that unit costs be kept for surgical 
supplies, many distinguished hospital officers scouted the 
idea. Yet the president of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals 
had only to raise the question with his supervisor of nurses 
in order to interest her in the test. Instead of giving physi- 
cians all the gauze they wanted, she had bandages of dif- 
ferent sizes rolled for different kinds of operations. With 
what result? They saved $150 a week or $7800 a year on 
linen bandages alone ! Not only were the surgeons unaware 
that they had used less gauze, but they were pleased because 
it came to them in units most useful to them. 

Likewise, watching college units of expense will release 
funds and energy for increasing units of service. 

48. Revolving Funds 

Comparisons of college expenses are usually unfair to 
colleges which have not adopted proper systems of account- 
ing, because numerous expenses that have no direct connec- 
tion with cost of instruction appear in the same total with 
salaries and other instructional costs. Many colleges report 
even student organizations' receipts and disbursements in 
the total receipts and disbursements for the college. This 
raises the advertised per capita cost and also encourages an 
unfair presumption that salaries are adequate. The fact 
that both debit and credit sides show the same amounts does 
not reduce the misrepresentation. 

Whether the inclusion of non-educational costs and 
strictly business transactions results in overstating or under- 



Revolving Funds — Kept Separate 137 

stating instructional costs, it always makes work harder 
than necessary for college managers. 

That dormitories should stand on their own feet finan- 
cially is expected. It will help them stand there and free 
energies now diverted from educational work if the amounts 
spent and received for dormitories are treated as business 
capital going out and coming back; i.e., are set up as re- 
volving funds. 

The legislature of 19 15 made a revolving fund out of the 
working balance in the University of Wisconsin's treasury; 
i.e., the amount was appropriated to the university to be 
used between the beginning of the year and the first returns 
from students, but to be paid back again to this working 
capital after student payments came in. The money was 
advanced, not given. The university could use it as a loan, 
not as an appropriation as formerly ; after being paid back it 
must be kept there as capital for future advances and not 
used for increasing salaries or undertaking new work. 

Small colleges have need for revolving funds. They do 
not need to ask contributions for dormitory expenses that 
they charge against individual students. They do need 
authorization to stock up with supplies and to assume re- 
sponsibility for running the dormitory a year. They must 
have budget appropriations to cover these obligations. To 
make clear that these appropriations are capital advanced to 
be refunded out of later business transactions, these funds 
are not given but are voted with a string tied to them; 
that is, they are college capital to be refunded out of college 
earnings and kept in a revolving fund. 

It is an easy matter to run over a college financial state- 
ment and to take out of the costs for instruction and build- 
ing maintenance those items that depend upon business cus- 
tomers; i.e., upon pay-as-you-go admissions. Deans must 
be paid whether there are 200 or 400 students. Food sup- 
plies will not be used for 400 students unless 400 students 
pay their board bills in advance. Separate accounting for 
revolving funds will make it easier to tell whether pay-as- 
you-enter or pay-as-you-use business is charged enough to 



138 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

pay-as-it-goes. The treasurer will account for all moneys 
handled but will keep revolving funds entirely separate in 
all statements. 

As above stated, President Cowling of Carleton College 
feels strongly that in financial statements that are going to 
supporters only net deficits or net profits should appear. 
This suggestion would apply, of course, only to those insti- 
tutions which fail to keep revolving funds entirely separate. 

49. Use and Non-Use of College Space 

Most colleges are either " building poor " or " student 
poor; " i.e., they have more building space than they need or 
can pay for, or else they have more students than they can 
care for satisfactorily. Building poor today, student poor 
tomorrow, is the usual story. In but a few instances have 
colleges taken the position that they will stop accepting or 
trying to secure students in excess of their present space ca- 
pacity. Too many students mean increased appealing 
power — more buildings — room for more students — more 
students — too many students — and round the circle again. 

There will be many surveys and self -surveys where no 
questions will be asked about buildings. Sooner or later, 
however, every college will become interested in its use 
of space. Has it enough space — indoors, outdoors? Is 
it making enough use of present space? How can it prove 
its needs for more space? How can it interest possible 
donors in providing more space ? 

As part of an inventory which every college ought to 
have immediately available is a list of its properties, with 
a statement showing for what purpose and for how many 
and which hours of the week and year each portion of this 
space is used. Secondly, a forecast should be always on 
hand showing what the space conditions ought to be ten 
years ahead, provided the present rate of growth continues 
or projected extensions are consummated. 

Only by having and studying such evidence can colleges 
be foresighted, thrifty, and statesmanlike in the use of their 
opportunity. 



Smith Advertises Non-Use of Space 139 





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" Our buildings are not as crowded at all hours of the day as some per- 
sons have imagined." From Annual Report of President Burton of Smith 
College, for igi6. 



140 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

In addition to listing facts properly classified as to space, 
purpose, use, partial use, and non-use, colleges need current 
graphic exhibits of these facts. 

Three different ways of showing the use of a room are 
given on the opposite page, borrowed from Record Aids in 
College Management. 

Imaginative use of college property is just beginning. 
No longer are colleges satisfied with athletic grounds used 
only or principally for teams and intercollegiate games. 
Advertising in black the large percentage of time when 
grounds are not used will raise the question whether part 
of the campus should be made into tennis courts; whether 
gymnastics should be outdoors as well as indoors; whether 
tillable lands can be used for both growing vegetables and 
teaching agriculture, etc. Similarly, when confronted with 
non-use or partial use of laboratories, auditoriums, large 
lecture rooms, basement space, garret space, gymnasium, a 
college will ask whether its greatest need is for more space 
or for more salaries with more use of existing space. Ak- 
ron's municipal university found that by placing a row of 
lockers two feet wide between the original desks, eight 
feet apart, it could accommodate 1 1 1 instead of 48 students 
in the same laboratory. 

Several convictions that favor limited use of space are 
current among colleges. Many instructors sincerely be- 
lieve that room efficiency is incompatible with teaching 
efficiency ; i.e., that only by a high percentage of non-use and 
partial non-use of space can colleges approximate the best 
use of teachers. Again, regarding units in laboratories 
there are certain fixed practices which are believed to pro- 
duce best instructional results, although under-use of space 
is the price. 

So far as these convictions are based on facts, they will 
obviously be strengthened by submission of those facts. So 
far as they are contrary to fact educators will, of course, 
prefer to abandon convictions. For example, it is believed 
by many that afternoon meetings of instructor with students 
are not as productive as morning meetings. Instructors 



Three Ways of Showing Use of Rooms 141 





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No. 3, Alternative of No. 2. Non-use, black; partial use, fraction. 



142 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

who prefer afternoon meetings with students insist that 
morning hours should be reserved by instructors for study 
and that afternoon recitations are equally productive for 
students. It is a simple matter to list the morning and after- 
noon hours for each student, each subject, and each instruc- 
tor. Such a list will show that many faculty members try 
to have most of their work in afternoons, while some try 
to crowd all of their work into two or three hours. 

Reasons why some instructors prefer afternoon work 
will, when confronted with reasons why others deplore it, 
leave a small degree of uncertainty as to relative benefits 
for students of afternoon and morning hours. This un- 
certainty can easily be tested by comparing different sections 
in the same courses and work of the same students for the 
two periods. Questions to older students and alumni will 
help. See Exhibit III. 

Many instructors are convinced that they work better 
each in his own room than by sharing rooms with other 
instructors. Again, many instructors believe that they work 
better in rooms reserved for their own subjects; i.e., that 
each subject has an atmosphere of its own which is more 
or less if not entirely destroyed when mixed with other sub- 
jects' atmosphere. If this belief is correct, it is uneconomi- 
cal even when necessary to have German and English, or 
physics and history, in the same room. If it is incorrect, 
it is wasteful even when possible to reserve a room for a 
subject or a man. Whether it is correct or not can be 
learned only by asking questions like these : 

1. What subjects and what instructors now share use of 
each room? 

2. What physical inconveniences do instructors experi- 
ence? 

3. Must instructors hurry out of rooms, so that con- 
ferring with students after classes is impossible ? Is 
there inadequate office space for conferences? 

4. Are facilities lacking for filing papers and other ma- 
terials necessary or valuable to instruction? iV. . . 
F... 



Wrong Way to Show Space Use 143 

5. Is it so difficult to use wall space for instructional pur- 
poses that this asset is practically neglected; i.e., 
would wall maps of different courses interfere with 
one another ? Y. . , iV . . . 

6. Must an instructor hold different classes in different 
rooms? F... AT... f . . . 

7. Do students lose interest in English if English shares 
rooms with other subjects, or if rooms reserved for 
English are widely separated from one another? 
Y N ^ 

8. Are difficulties of departmental conferences so great 
that teachers of the same subject do not meet in- 
formally? F... A^... f.., 

9. How are these disadvantages reflected concretely in 
student benefits and faculty spirit? 

10. Is existing space properly "mobilized"? F... 
AT... f... 

In comparing space use with non-use of space, an ounce 
of local experience is worth a ton of comparison with other 
colleges. When local comparison is made it behooves fac- 
ulty members to consider one comparison more seriously; 
viz., comparison between benefits that would result from 
more space with benefits that would result from, more men 
and larger salary funds. Instructors can't eat their cake 
and have it too. There comes a time in every college where 
more space means harder work to secure funds for more 
men and more funds for each man. 

How not to study use and non-use of college space is 
brilliantly set forth by the Iowa Survey Commission re- 
ferred to above and a little later in the section on averages. 
The essence of the method is given in the following formula 
used by the commission, which finds average occupancy by 
adding its maximum and minimum and dividing by two : 

Average occupancy (20) X periods used (18) 360 

Capacity (36) X periods in week (44) 1584 ~ 

22.7 per cent occupancy time 



144 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Will college managements take any room in any building, 
apply this formula, and see how far it helps them decide 
where they have non-used or only partially used space? 
Vassar published the capacity and number using each room. 
No. 32 has occupancy ranging from i to 56; half this sum 
is 28.5. Is this average occupancy? If the total use is 
divided by the total hours, the average is 14.7, not 28.5 ! 

50. The Working Week 

Practically every effort which heretofore has been made 
to ascertain how much time college work requires of the 
teaching staff has been met with protests against " wrong- 
headed and deplorable applications of the efficiency idea." 
Yet regarding few aspects of academic work has there been 
more misunderstanding. 

The stock story in Wisconsin is illustrative : A legislator 
asked a professor how many hours he worked. The pro- 
fessor answered, " Eight." The legislator, whose unit was 
a day rather than a week, commented : " Well, eight hours 
is a good full day for any man." For the farmer, clerk, 
banker, housewife, or teacher who contributes to support 
a state university it is difficult to fill out the rest of the week 
for an instructor who has only four or seven or ten or even 
fifteen hours of classroom instruction during a whole week. 

Because definite information has been lacking to help in- 
quirers fill out the faculty members' week, great numbers 
conclude that college teaching is a " snap " compared with 
earning money in other ways. Nor has the misunderstand- 
ing been removed by saying generally that much time is 
required to prepare for meeting students. 

Of Wisconsin's faculty members 402 estimated for a 
typical week the number of hours given to instructional pur- 
poses, including time given to class work, reading students' 
papers, conferences with students, services as student ad- 
viser, and personal preparation for courses. 19 reported 
over 60 hours, 18 reported 16 hours or less. The details 
for all ranks are shown here graphically because of the 
questions they raise. 



Instructors' Working Week 



145 



Time given to instructional purposes — all ranks — all col- 
leges, University of Wisconsin 

(Includes time given to class work, reading students' papers, conference 
with students, services as student adviser, personal preparation 
for courses) 

6 hrs. or less 

7 hrs. 

8 hrs. 

9 hrs. 
10 hrs. 

11-15 hrs. 
16-20 hrs. 
21-25 hrs. 
26-30 hrs. 
31-35 hrs. 
36-40 hrs. 
41-45 hrs. 
46-50 hrs. 
51-55 hrs. 
56-60 hrs. 
Over 60 hrs. 





Members of faculty giving over 30 and 40 hours a week to 

students 




tttal-69 



(Agriculture) 



?otal-51 



(Engineering) 



total -9 

I (Uedielne) 

13 total-6 
(Lan) 



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Lose than 30 hnurs a veok 



30 hours cr mora 
40 hours or aor» 



14^ Self Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

In Wisconsin the president stated that 15 hours a week 
was the total number of hours which it was expected an 
instructor would give to the university in the form of class- 
room time plus research. 

While private colleges have not been subject to much 
outspoken criticism, they are subject to much misunder- 
standing. Even their own trustees find it difficult to appre- 
ciate that presidents and deans mean what they say when 
they complain about overburdened instructors whose over- 
burdening is illustrated by saying that they have 10 or 12 
or 15 hours of instruction besides clerical work, research, 
committee assignments, and the innumerable miscellanies of 
faculty work. 

The shortest cut to understanding and to steps which will 
correct inequitable assignments of work is for faculties 
themselves to keep such a record of their working week 
that successful misrepresentation will be impossible. 

Toledo University now asks its faculty to distribute the 
time given to the university under these five heads: In- 
struction, research for instruction, administration, extension, 
public — i.e., municipal — service (a) research, (b) admin- 
istration. It began by giving the number of hours, but the 
faculty protested, and now they give the time in percentages. 
The Wisconsin Central Board of Education asked for an 
accurate time record for university and normal-school in- 
structors. Upon protest this was changed to the percentage 
system. It seems curious that college faculties will resent 
giving accurate figures when willingly and innocently they 
will give the percentage distribution from which a fifth- 
grade arithmetic class can compute the exact amounts. The 
time spent in classrooms is officially recorded now. To re- 
port it in percentages conceals nothing, but merely fosters 
guesswork and compels extra figuring. 

Whatever objection there may be to publishing broadcast 
the distribution of instructors' time certainly applies not at 
all to the budgeting by each instructor of his own time; 
only slightly to the budgeting for departmental study; and 
not dangerously to budgeting for confidential use by deans, 



Purdue's Study of Working Hours 147 

president, and trustees in determining standard require- 
ments and compensations. 

In the table on pages 148-149 quarter hours are called for 
because they reduce to a minimum the tendency of over- 
statement or understatement. It is not necessary that this 
table be filled out for every day in the year. It is neces- 
sary that it be filled out for a typical period, perhaps a fort- 
night, and special pains should be taken to indicate what, 
if any, exceptional circumstances obtained during the fort- 
night recorded. 

With the table once filled out it is possible to decide 
equitably where less work should be assigned; where more 
work; what adjustments should be made because of the 
necessity to review student papers. 

Purdue's annual report for 19 15-19 16 speaks of an ex- 
haustive study of teachers' working hours during the two 
preceding years which showed variations in the hours of 
work which " in a few instances reveal a situation for cor- 
rection." Unfortunately the details are given in averages. 
Even these averages, however, show suggestive differences. 
In arts and sciences 27.4 hours a week were given for class- 
room instruction; in natural sciences for classroom and 
laboratory instruction the total was 32.7; in practical me- 
chanics for mainly laboratory instruction, 39.4 hours. 

A " satisfactory standard of hours of duty " was officially 
promulgated as the result of this study, as follows : 

For heads of schools and departments with minimum ad- 
ministrative duties, ten class hours per week, equivalent to 250 
student hours. 

For professors and instructors without administrative work, 

a. Giving only classroom instruction, fifteen class hours 

and 375 student hours. 

b. Purely laboratory instruction, thirty class hours and 

600-700 student hours. 

c. Mixed classroom and laboratory instruction, twenty 

class hours and 500 student hours. 
For assistants without responsibility for class instruction, 
thirty to thirty-five hours per week for departmental work. 



148 






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1. Classroom teaching 

a. By lecture 

b. By recitation — textbook 

c. By quiz or reading or 

lecture 

2. Laboratory teaching 

3. Field-work teaching 

4. Supervision of teaching 

a. By faculty members 

b. By students 

5. Conference with faculty 

a. Within own department 

b. With others 

6. Study room 

7. Individual conference with 

students 
a. At regular office hour 



Time Sheet for Working Week 149 



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150 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

These suggestions are inserted here at the last minute 
even though a few pages too early, because they give valu- 
able testimony and because they illustrate so well the ad- 
vantage of having at each college the clearing house for in- 
formation that is later advised. 

51. Teaching Load of Instructors 

To learn the elements of the teaching load the first step 
is to secure for each person having instructional relations 
with students the following facts : 

1. Total registrations in each class. 

2. Withdrawals. 

3. Net registrations. 

4. Number receiving credit. 

5. Number of credits received. 

6. Number failed. 

This information is either available or easily obtainable for 
every faculty. Beyond this information there are several 
differences of opinion as to what should be counted in the 
teaching load. In fact, authorities disagree as to whether 
the load credited to each instructor should include persons 
who do not obtain credits ; most of the tables thus far pub- 
hshed have excluded that part of the actual load which is 
represented by students who fail. 

Faculty members will soon protest against excluding from 
their load those elements which make the harness gall. The 
student who fails is apt to receive more attention and more 
worry — i.e., to be a greater load — than five students who 
receive credits summa cum laude. If feasible, faculties 
should undoubtedly demand that students who come if only 
for a week and drop out be counted as part of their load. 
For some time to come surveyors will do better to state 
at least the total, including all who remain through the course 
whether they obtain credit or not. If the blank calls for 
credit and non-credit students, but little clerical work is in- 
volved in giving both teaching loads ; i.e., with and without 
failures and withdrawals. 



The Teaching Load 151 

The possibility of standardizing the load is being widely 
discussed. President R. M. Hughes of Miami University in 
his annual report suggests 240 and 275 student credit hours 
as reasonable limits. Whether for a particular college these 
limits are reasonable can more easily be decided when the 
factors for each instructor are compiled. (Later Presi- 
dent Hughes fixed upon 300 as the right average.) 

Several reasons will be urged by faculties against accept- 
ing either credit totals or registration totals as a fair ex- 
pression of the teaching load; e.g., 

1. 240 credit hours or 240 registration hours in English 
do not represent the same drain upon a teacher as 
240 hours in Latin. 

2. A lecture or demonstration for which preparation 
must be made does not represent the same teaching 
load as a lecture or demonstration for which no prep- 
aration is required. 

3. A course given for the fifth time might have the same 
registration or credit hours as when given the first 
time, yet the teaching load is appreciably diminished. 

4. A laboratory course which permits faculty research 
while supervising students' experiments does not rep- 
resent the same load as a course which requires con- 
stant attention to students. 

5. A history lecture during which the instructor tries out 
a new book upon his students is not equal as a load 
to a history lecture which reviews, condenses, and il- 
luminates other men's books, although it may be of 
superior value. 

6. In spite of appearances from the number of hours and 
number of students taught, the teaching load of 240 
credits for a young instructor does not represent the 
same load as 240 credits for that same instructor ten 
years later. 

7. The instructor who knows and cares for his students 
has not the same load as one who never sees his stu- 
dents out of class and does not try to fit his work to 
their needs and abilities. 



152 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Attempts to ascertain and equalize teaching loads will lead 
faculties to welcome requests and devices for recording and 
reporting non-teaching loads dVawn for their colleges. 

Instead of teaching load the Iowa Survey Commission em- 
ployed the term student-clock-hour. It is to be regretted 
that such a confusing and meaningless term should have 
been given currency in a publication of the United States 
Bureau of Education over names which include two uni- 
versity deans, two presidents, and the Bureau of Education's 
specialist in higher education. The method which is cited 
above to illustrate the futility of averages was as follows: 
The instructor's teaching load was computed in terms of 
the time spent by students in lecture, quiz, or laboratory; 
i.e., student-clock-hour. Although a difference between a 
laboratory hour or a quiz hour or a lecture hour by an in- 
structor is recognized, it is treated as a detail to be ironed 
out in averages. Differences between undergraduate and 
graduate work are conceded, but are to be ironed out in 
averages which " perhaps may be taken as the reasonable 
norm." 

Only a morass of confusion and conflict can be con- 
structed out of studies of the teaching load which are based 
upon departmental averages, norms, and perhapses. 

Yet the Association of American Colleges Bulletin, Feb- 
ruary, 19 1 7, prints in its revised edition of The Efficient 
College an elaboration of this student-clock-hour method of 
computing cost. 

It must be conceded that if the only fact wanted is the 
payroll cost of student meetings with instructor, and if 
secondly no part of the instructor's time is to be counted 
except that which he spends in meeting students, the unit 
cost per student-clock-hour will be comparable and useful. 
Before extensively accepting this unmodified unit, however, 
colleges would well count the certainty that the cost of being 
ready to meet students will be in many cases grossly un- 
derstated by the cost of time spent with students. 

Of especial importance is it that the student-clock-hour 
shall by no one be used as the basis of equalizing salaries 



Teaching Load Abhors Averages 153 

or loads within a faculty or of giving promotion to faculty 
members — for reasons stated above on page 151. As 
President Burton declared after a chart showing size and 
number of class sections for the first semester 1915-1916: 

" General ratios of faculty to students are of value, but the 
vital question concerns the actual distribution of the students 
in relation to the faculty. The college might boast of one in- 
structor to every seven or eight students, but be permitting 
conditions in the classroom which would be almost intolerable." 

52. Distribution of Non-Teaching Load 
To him who carrieth it shall be given, is the rule for 
distributing non-teaching loads in colleges. Benjamin 
Franklin said that the man who has already done you a favor 
will be more apt to help you out of trouble than the man 
whom you have helped. The college version is that faculty 
members who have already made sacrifices by serving on 
committees and carrying other extra-instructional loads are 
the ones who will best carry the next load. Similarly, it is 
the man who has already taken time from recreation, study, 
and home in order to help students, and not the man who 
has evaded out-of -class claims, who will receive next week's 
calls from students. 

After making modifications to fit local conditions, self- 
surveyors will do well to secure periodically from all faculty 
members a time distribution of extra-instructional loads as 
per the table on page 148. 

53. Record of Classes 

The most important single storehouse of knowledge about 
a college is its record of the instructor's classes; the ques- 
tions it asks ; the answers on it ; the date it is filled out ; the 
uses made of it. 

As to information called for surveyors will look for 
these : 

1. Name of each study taught or directed. 

2. Number of each course. 

3. Days of week, scheduled hours, room number. 



154 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

For recitation. 

For lecture. 

For quiz section. 

For laboratory. 

For thesis course. 

For supervising student research. 

For administrative duties, committee work, stu- 
dent adviser, assigned investigation, inspection of 
schools, etc. 

4. Total number of students — men and women, classi- 
fied in separate columns for graduates, seniors, jun- 
iors, sophomores, freshmen, specials, auditors. 

5. Grand total of students — men and women. 

6. Grand total of hours. 

7. Withdrawals from classes between the time of the 
original enrollment and the time of sending in blanks. 

8. Classes of students for such exceptional divisions as 
military drill, physical education, outdoor games, rest 
hour, calisthenics, music, etc. 

9. Date of signing blank. 

10. Date of return of blank by instructor and receipt of 
blank by president's office. 

11. Date on which blank must be at president's office. 

12. Degree of responsibihty for courses and sections. 

13. Whether blank is filled out by the person whose classes 
are reported or by a representative. 

14. Signature of instructors. In a very large number 
of cases the signature is apparently by the registrar's 
clerk, since the handwriting is the same for the ma- 
jority of instructors. 

Comparing information furnished with information called 
for, surveyors will note discrepancies like these : 

1. Blanks not filled out for name of study, number of 
course, number of students, totals, recitation hours, 
days of week, hour, number of room and building, to- 
tal hours. 

2. Office hours included in total instruction hours. 



Class Records : Discrepancies 155 

3. Name of department or field written instead of name 
of study. 

4. Errors in addition of hours. 

5. Errors in addition of students. 

6. Total hours stated for the semester instead of for 
the week. 

7. No statement of work at all. 

8. ** Thesis course " not clearly defined to indicate 
whether thesis course is spoken of or the assignment 
of a thesis in some regular course. 

9. Preparation hours included in total recitation or lab- 
oratory hours. 

10. Hour of day written in columns for total laboratory 
hours. 

1 1. All students in all sections reported by each instructor 
where large general class is divided into 5 or 10 or 20 
sections. 

12. Time and place reported on a semester record in dis- 
agreement with the time and place on record with the 
committee on time and place, and with the classroom 
cards posted outside. 

13. Semester report books, while arranged alphabetically, 
not divided according to letters, so that to find names 
involves waste of time. 

14. No index by which departmental totals or totals by 
rank of instructors can be found. It is necessary to 
consult a directory, the catalog, or roster without cer- 
tainty that all faculty members participating in in- 
struction will be included there. 

15. Research work disposed of by the mere word "re- 
search " written across the sheet, without any speci- 
fication as to hours or place or subject. 

16. Research supervision described under such a heading 
as " hours arranged with each student for research." 

54. Small Classes 

The first question to ask about small classes is not whether 
they ought to be, but how many there are in each subject 



156 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

and under each instructor. Grouping of classes into five or 
fewer and six to ten is not satisfactory, for such grouping 
conceals significant facts about the smallest classes of one, 
two, three, or four students. The number of each size 
should be stated. 

Since many instructors carry individual students or small 
groups as a labor of love from special interest in their sub- 
ject, it is important to know how many other classes each 
instructor has who is recorded as having small classes. 

Some institutions prohibit by law or by agreement classes 
of fewer than five or fewer than ten. In such cases prac- 
tice should be compared with law. 

At what time the dean or responsible committee or presi- 
dent first learns of the intention to organize a small class, 
and whether or not facts justifying this intention are given 
to these officers and to trustees, are important questions for 
surveyors. No board of trustees should be without infor- 
mation as to the reasons in each case for spending what, in 
the absence of clear reasons, would be a disproportionate 
amount of energy and money on students in small classes. 
Why should not college catalogs declare a presumption 
against courses for fewer than six or ten in a class and an- 
nounce that only for exceptional reasons — stated and ap- 
proved in writing — will such classes be organized? 

Operation cost is not the only cost of small classes. A 
class of one in a room for 56 means a heavy capital cost, 
particularly when this room is counted as occupied in ap- 
peals for new buildings. Millions of dollars are represented 
by conditions like these: 

6 students in a room for 48. 

4 students in a room for 36. 

4 students in a room for 32. 

4 students in a room for 50. 

3 students in a room for 33. 

55. Control of Faculty Research 
Other things being equal, the American college instruc- 
tor will go to the institution which talks about research, 



Capital Cost of Small Classes 157 

puts a premium on research, promotes research, rebates 
teaching hours in order to permit research. 

Whether written, spoken, or merely " in the air," teach- 
ing hours and teaching methods of American faculties are 
being materially influenced by the research idea and re- 
search cult. Either colleges must control research or re- 
search will control colleges to the disregard of all consid- 
erations except research. 

The proposition of time that should be given to research 
and to instruction is matter of disagreement. Wisconsin's 
faculty answers ranged from one-quarter research to three- 
quarter research. Little headway can be made by trying to 
secure an agreement in theory. The first step is to secure 
a record such as is called for in the time record for the work- 
ing week, that will show how much time and energy go to 
what is called faculty research. 

Because research does not necessarily discover or produce, 
it is necessary to ask questions about the products of re- 
search and to compare these products with other time and 
money costs. It is not safe to trust the educational litera- 
ture of any researcher's field or to trust the candor of his 
colleagues. The institution which employs him, which 
credentials him, and which adjusts its program to his re- 
search owes it to the rest of its work to provide special 
audit of his research results. 

The effect of research upon teaching and upon college 
team work and atmosphere requires study by officers and 
trustees. Self -surveyors cannot afford to take it for granted 
that time spent on research means time profitably spent, 
nor may it be taken for granted that research success is not 
jeopardizing other equally important activities. If, as the 
research enthusiasts maintain, there cannot be efficient 
teaching unless the teacher is conducting research, then 
obviously the most effective control of research is via con- 
trol of teaching method and product. 

President Butler advises for Columbia an administrative 
board of research separate and apart from the university 
council, but responsible to it, whose duty it would be (a) 



158 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

to receive suggestions for systematic investigations from in- 
dividual officers and departments, (b) to review them, 
(c) to rank them in order of precedence in claim upon 
next year's budget, and (d) to discourage duplication. 

56. Cost of Faculty Research 

With few exceptions contemporary discussions of college 
costs fail to recognize that faculty research has its own 
costs. Instead, research costs are unspecified and imbedded 
in instructors' salaries. Even the Iowa Survey Commis- 
sion's admirable plan for setting up expenditures does not 
mention research. Occasionally there are appeals for re- 
search chairs or for buildings and equipment, the annual 
maintenance of which will later be charged to teaching. 

The two nearest approaches to segregating research costs 
are in the biennial estimates of the University of Wiscon- 
sin, where for several years research cost has been esti- 
mated at from '' one third to one fourth of the total run- 
ning expenses " ; and in Toledo University, where faculty 
members report to the president specifically on regular ten- 
day time sheets the proportion of time given inter alia to 
scientific studies and to research for the municipality. 

The best first step in ascertaining the dollar cost of re- 
search will be to fill out the time distribution card on page 
148. This will show not merely a total or an average cost 
for research, but the detail cost in time for each instructor 
and each subject. Whether time cost means money cost de- 
pends upon whether time given to research is part of or in 
excess of the minimum number of hours which is expected 
as full-time service. 

Whether a college prescribes any minimum time that must 
be given to research or any minimum time that must be 
given to instruction should be learned. Few colleges as 
yet have any understanding as to the amount of time which 
must or may go to research. At Wisconsin the president 
expects every instructor to give a minimum of 15 hours a 
week to research plus teaching, and counts every hour less 
than 15 hours a week as a rebate chargeable against re- 



Questions or Notes 159 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



i6o Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

search; the dean of arts and sciences considers that the 
rebates are due to " demand and supply " regardless of re- 
search ; the dean of agriculture keeps a cost accounting for 
research. 

In the small colleges an instructor must do his research 
in his own time if at all, in addition to doing a full week's 
work of instruction. Even in the large colleges instruc- 
tors usually make their bargain for teaching hours, irrespec- 
tive of any obligation or inclination to do research work in 
other hours. To be sure, it is customary to cite opportunity 
for research among inducements which a college has to offer. 
As a rule a college wishing a particular man will offer him 
a maximum of ten or eight or even four hours a week, per- 
haps not even indirectly for the sake of promoting his re- 
search but for the sake of securing that particular man and 
his reputation or promise. 

For reasons stated on pages 157 and 325 ff., colleges must 
soon in self-defense find out what research does for and to 
instruction and what it costs. 

In his annual report for 191 6 President Butler of Colum- 
bia asks for $6,000,000 for endowment of research in ap- 
plied sciences; $1,000,000 for endowment of legal research 
and inquiry; and $2,000,000 for research in political sci- 
ence, philosophy, and pure science. Yet these funds if in 
hand would be but beginnings. More endowment means 
more buildings ; more buildings and more endowments bring 
more students; more students mean need for more endow- 
ments and more buildings. President Butler suggests an 
enormous future cost of research when he says : " Research 
can only be carried on in an institution of learning that is 
equipped with one of the really great libraries of the world." 

Confronted with the two alternatives of abandoning re- 
search or incurring great cost for research, probably at least 
100 colleges will choose the latter alternative. Those who 
intend to qualify for research must count the cost. Those 
who acknowledge inability to foster research must also count 
and eliminate research costs. Practical questions for sur- 
veyors include these: 



Faculty Research: Cost Questions i6i 

1. Is the cost of supplies, equipment, books, etc., used 
in research segregated, whether actual use is by the 
instructor or by students working upon the instruc- 
tor's research? F. . . AT... f . . . Is this cost 
currently reported on time sheets, requisitions, etc.? 
Y N . ^ 

2. When the budget is estimated and voted, is a definite 
item set up for research costs Y , , , N , , , f , , ,, both 
of supplies . . ., and equipment . . . and of salaries 
. . . ? 

3. Do state-supported institutions estimate, if they can- 
not accurately report, the cost of research ? Y . , . 
N , . . f . . . Is the reported cost net ... or gross 
. . . ; i.e., is it taken before ... (as it should be) 
or after . . . tuition fees and other revenues have been 
subtracted ? 

4. Is research encouraged for which costs have not been 
provided? F. . . N,.. ?.., 

5. What effort is made to compare costs, including di- 
version of energy, with benefits to instruction, to col- 
lege spirit, to personnel, to public welfare, to schol- 
arship ? 



V 
FACULTY GOVERNMENT 

57. Commission Government for Faculties 

I RESIDENT Silas Evans of Ripon College has fur- 
nished the following as introduction to this section : 

" Faculty government is generally inadequate. Con- 
sistency is the hobgoblin of college faculties. They 
worship precedent. ' It hath been said,' by themselves 
is the law of action. Government by rules and through 
rules, and the interest of rules, cannot be easily other 
than Pharisaic. The college faculty should be saved 
from police functions and kept for a mere constructive 
use of personal influence. 

" Government exclusively by deans and adminis- 
trative officers is inadequate. It is difficult to relate 
firm administration and personal influence. It is hard 
to give the impression of friendliness and exercise 
discipline. Administrative officers are apt to be placed 
in the position of ancient cabinet officers who were 
sometimes offered up to the public to save the false 
doctrine, * A king can do no wrong.' 

" The three forms of college government above 
have been tried and found defective. In the nature of 
the case, each form is too little representative. Ripon 
College has tried with most gratifying results what is 
called the commission form of college government. 
The college is in the state of Wisconsin and strives to 
reflect in its college government the best forms of gov- 
ernment in the commonwealth. The Wisconsin idea 
involves this fact — if a law is worth passing it must 
be big enough and important enough, and therefore 
elastic enough, to command the time and the skill of 
some expert in its application. This is democracy 
with expert leadership. This is the personal element 
in government without the limitations of democracy. 

" Any leading interest of college life that needs regu- 

162 



Faculty Government: Commissions 163 

lation and guidance is placed under the charge of some 
commission. These commissions cover every possible 
college relationship, and should any question arise 
which, in the mind of the dean or president, is not 
clearly defined within the powers of the commissions, 
it can easily be referred to one of them. 

" There are the following commissions : Athletics, 
college commons, forensics and publications, music, and 
social life. The college has certain broad policies and 
principles which define its central aims, and in the 
light of which each commission carries on its work. A 
commission is given full power to organize itself and 
carry on its work in its own way. Each commission is 
constituted with one local trustee member, two faculty 
members, and two student members, the students gen- 
erally holding ofBce by virtue of ofBce in some student 
organization. Faculty members and the trustee mem- 
ber are appointed by the president. The dean of the 
college and the president are ex-ofHcio members on 
each committee. The genius of this form of govern- 
ment is almost exclusively in the selection of leadership, 
in the placing of responsibility, and in the continuity 
of policy.'' 

58. How President and Faculty Deal with One Another 

The conditions of many surveys make this a delicate ques- 
tion, even if it is ofBcially propounded. Surveyors run the 
risk of discovering in a particular college such conditions 
as have led to the organization of a national protective 
union among professors. In surveying a publicly sup- 
ported institution, there is only one honest way out and that 
is to ascertain and report the truth, whomsoever it may prove 
to be at fault. For private inventories it is desirable that 
every president frankly ask about his relations to his faculty. 

Since most self -surveyors will be a combination of offi- 
cers and faculty, it will prove expedient to confine their 
study of mutual relations between president and faculty to 
questions like these: 



164 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

1. Is there a written procedure; i.e., are promises and 
inducements in writing? F. . . AT... ?.,, Do 
by-laws describe the accountabihty of the president? 
Y N ^ 

2. Does this procedure adequately represent the interests 
of both sides? Y.,, iV. . . f,,, 

3. What, if any, changes are needed? 

4. Does this procedure invite suggestion and complaint 
from the faculty? F. . . AT... f . . . 

5. Does it provide for automatic reference of important 
questions to faculty . . . , departments . . . , or com- 
mittees . . . ? F. . . iV. . . f... 

6. Does it foster the limitation of faculty contact with 

president to a few faculty members? F. . . AT. . . 

? 
. • • • 

7. Does it insure action by the president only on the 
basis of provable, impersonal facts after submission 
to all faculty members involved ; i.e., does it guaran- 
tee that the president will not recommend dismissals 
or postponement of salary increases for other rea- 
sons than those made known to the faculty members 
involved? F. . . AT... f . . . 

8. If the president's recommendations mean merely 
transmitting departmental recommendations to en- 
gage, to dismiss, to promote, to postpone salary in- 
creases, is this fact made clear in written procedure ? 
F. . . A/". . . .^. . . Must the president act with- 
out learning departmental reasons F. . . A/"...; or 
after learning these reasons may he withhold them 
from faculty members? F. . . N , , , 

9. Where the president acts as intermediary without ex- 
ercising independent judgment, must he meet pro- 
posed additions to the faculty before their final en- 
gagement? F. . . N... 

10. After discharging the fixed duties imposed upon him, 
how much time has the president left to use, if he 
and the faculty wish, for personal contact with faculty 
members ? 



Doing without a President 165 

11. What practice is fixed in writing or in tradition with 
respect to office hours by the president, and *' at 
homes" or special receptions to or by the faculty? 
How far is it feasible or desirable for the president 
to meet faculty members on the basis of their prin- 
cipal college service ; viz., their work with students? 

12. What suggestions have president or faculty with re- 
spect to possible changes in extent and character of 
personal relations? 

In 19 1 6 the deans of Northwestern University, acting for 
their faculties, recommended that for the time at least there 
be no permanent president and that instead a temporary 
presiding and " clearing " officer be named from existing 
deans. It is expected that no temporary officer shall serve 
more than one year. This in effect is the orthodox prac- 
tice in Scotland. The college with this arrangement can 
be asked questions with less fear of embarrassment, because 
this year's president will be next year's faculty member. 

When surveying tax-supported institutions, the limita- 
tions above mentioned will be found by self -surveyors. The 
outside surveyor, however, if brought in by taxpayers via 
the legislature, will ask several more questions, as must now 
and then an outside surveyor brought in by alumni associa- 
tion or board of trustees to survey a private college. 

1. Does evidence show that the president in his deal- 
ings with the faculty acts from personal motive . . . , 
factional promptings . . . , or comprehensive imper- 
sonal facts . . . ? 

2. In what ways does the president make it easier or 
harder for faculty members to do their work? 

3. How many times and under what circumstances, other 
than at formal group meetings, has each faculty mem- 
ber, especially each new faculty member, met the pres- 
ident this year? 

4. In what ways does the president make use of the first 
faculty meeting of the school year and of succeeding 



1 66 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

faculty meetings to establish helpful, understanding 
relations with faculty members ? 
5. What evidences are there that faculty members con- 
sider the president as their agent or as their superior 
officer and arbiter of their fate? 

59. Is Faculty Government Democratic f 

Self-government as practiced by faculties is a field which 
faculty members can survey without waiting for official ac- 
tion. The special surveyor will reluctantly study this ques- 
tion. There is danger that even self -surveyors will over- 
look it or deal with it philosophically rather than investi- 
gatingly. 

Before justifying any lament over the growth of bureau- 
cracy and autocracy, our faculties must put in order those 
particular houses over which they now have exclusive con- 
trol. Faculty meetings and departmental meetings still be- 
long to the members. They make the rules; they come or 
stay away. If they run these democratic meetings in ways 
to disfranchise themselves, they must blame themselves and 
the system they use rather than the president, dean, or 
trustees. As citizens, as apostles of higher education, and 
as self-respecting scholars faculties are under obligation to 
work out methods of self-government that will be at least 
as successful as the democracy which city, state, or nation 
achieves. 

The so-called democratic organization of our colleges is 
usually — and logically — the least democratic thing about 
them. Where there is unequal knowledge there will be un- 
equal opportunity, there cannot be democracy. 

Nothing is more undemocratic than a mass meeting where 
individuals act without knowing why. It is wasteful to have 
grown-up men with scholarly ambitions spending their time 
sitting around and talking and talking over some little ques- 
tion that their own students would settle — and settle 
right — in ten minutes. 

For two or three men to tell one hundred men what to 
think is not democratic. A large faculty coming together 



Is Faculty Government Democratic 167 

without knowledge in advance of what is to come up at 
their meeting cannot work democratically. In many col- 
leges the use of methods which kill democracy is further 
aggravated by the actual disfranchisement of those below 
professorial rank. 

Every time a faculty member sneers at ** efficiency,'* he is 
driving an additional nail into the coffin of faculty self- 
government. 

The price of more faculty democracy is more faculty in- 
terest in applying principles of scientific management to the 
management of colleges, including the part for which facul- 
ties alone are responsible. Faculty insistence upon faculty 
understanding will do more for faculty independence than 
will faculty control of appointments. 

One mistaken belief is now threatening to sweep through 
faculties ; viz., that it will foster faculty democracy to have 
faculty delegates on boards of trustees or at trustee meetings. 
There is no sadder fallacy than that physical presence of a 
faculty member is equal to faculty representation. On the 
contrary there can be no democracy of government before 
there is democracy of information. What the faculty does 
not know its representative cannot impart. What the repre- 
sentative does not know he cannot impart to the faculty. 
In fact, it by no means follows that a faculty member when 
present at faculty mass meeting is even representing him- 
self, because unless he has information and unless he and 
others discuss and vote on the basis of information the 
accident of debate may cause him to misrepresent his own 
and his department's interests. 

60. Faculty Meetings, Committee Assignments, Minutes 

Faculty meetings must continue to be " demonstrations of 
inanity," as Professor A. W. Rankin dubs them, so long as 
meeters are in a state of inanition with respect to the busi- 
ness proposed. It is mobilization of knowledge vital to 
faculty members which will democratize college faculties. 

Several practices endanger and defeat, several other prac- 



1 68 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

tices foster, faculty democracy. Among the earmarks of 
faculty paralysis the surveyor should look for these: 

1. Attempt to secure deliberation from a faculty too 
large for deliberation. What is called deliberation 
by those who do the speaking in large faculties is 
often called declamation and ennui by the much 
larger number who only sit and wait. 

2. Attempt to secure administration from a faculty too 
large for administration. A faculty may be small 
enough for effective deliberation and still too large 
for administration. 

3. Belief that there is democracy in physical presence of 
a large number. 

4. A low rate of attendance for those supposed to at- 
tend. Mass meetings from which the mass stays 
away are hardly democratic. 

5. Monopoly of discussion by the same few. 

6. Unequitable distribution of committee assignments. 
Overworking the few and underworking the many 
means superficial work and undemocratic government. 
Usually it means failure to employ and develop the 
younger men, who because of their newness and re- 
cent study have much to give. 

7. Failure to distribute calendar proceedings in advance. 

8. Failure to send out in advance digests of reports to be 
considered. 

9. Giving time to reading minutes aloud instead of send- 
ing out copies. 

10. Failure to inform non-attendants of matters discussed 
and actions taken in their absence. 

11. Failure to make a running start each new year with 
summaries of work accomplished the preceding year 
and of pending business. 

Where a faculty or an individual wishes to survey faculty 
democracy, these questions may help : 

I. Are minutes in proper form . . ., appropriately paged 
. . . , indexed . . . , signed . . . , formally approved . . . ? 
Do they state the time of adjournment Y. . , N , . .; 



Questions or Notes 169 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



170 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

number present F. . . N,.,; number voting Y,,. 
N..., persons present? Y... N... Are steno- 
graphic notes taken of important transactions? F. . . 
N. . . Are important reports digested? Y . . . N. ... 
Are important questions and actions explained in min- 
utes without requiring reference to a separate file 
book ? y . . . N. . . Is discussion digested ? Y . . . 
N . . . Is previous action codified so that it will not 
be necessary either to act on the basis of some one's 
memory or to postpone action until former records 
can be consulted ? Y . . . N . . . 

2. For one year list the number of meetings; number 
present at each meeting; times individuals are men- 
tioned in minutes; times individuals are appointed to 
committees; votes for and against important issues; 
number of disciplinary administrative questions not 
meriting faculty action; number of educational ques- 
tions justifying faculty consideration ; fraction of fac- 
ulty not participating or not voting for policies 
adopted. 

3. Regarding committees: Do standing committees re- 
port orally ... or in writing ... at the first meeting 
of the year ? Are new standing committees appointed 
at the first meeting? Y. . . N . . . How many mem- 
bers are on more than one standing committee ; how 
many on none? How many members are on more 
than one special committee; how many on none? 
State for each member the number and names of 
standing and special committees. Are committees 
required to report the scope of their study Y.., 
N... and the fact base of their conclusions Y.., 
N . . .? What provision is there for referring back 
to committees all reports based upon obviously inade- 
quate investigations? How many important sub- 
jects were referred to committees without specifying 
time for return? How many that might have been 
reported upon at the first or second subsequent meet- 
ing were reported later or " lost in the shuffle " ? 



Professional Secretary for Faculty lyi 

At Toledo the faculty elects representatives to the faculty 
council. The president is chairman of all faculty meetings, 
so that the dean may represent the faculty on the floor. The 
faculty retains powers of initiative. 

Throughout the college work similar efforts are being 
made to secure a combination of efficiency, accountability, 
and democracy. 

6i. Faculty Investigations and Reports 

The University of Wisconsin faculty has recently ap- 
pointed one of its strongest members, at almost the maxi- 
mum professorial salary, as faculty secretary. He is to be 
the faculty's clearing house, central, control station, train 
dispatcher, continuing memory, follow-up man. 

This step was recommended by the faculty as a means of 
increasing faculty democracy. The hope was that by guar- 
anteeing that faculty questions, proposals, and reports 
would receive prompt, cumulative, scientific, representa- 
tive attention at one center it would become worth while 
for each member to make his best contribution. It is ex- 
pected that the university will receive numerous constructive 
suggestions and helpful criticisms which previous machinery 
did not invite. 

Similar steps are being taken by several faculties. The 
practice is growing of delegating administrative matters 
to one small group, educational and legislative matters to 
another, and reserving general meetings for debate of ques- 
tions vital to all. Getting acquainted with colleagues can 
be better accomplished through social meetings or general 
convocations than through faculty meetings which stumble 
along with administrative questions that belong to small 
committees or to administrative officers. Inspirational and 
team spirit that result from being in a group and from 
meeting one's colleagues would be enhanced by eliminating 
from such meetings all discussions and details that most fac- 
ulty members find dispiriting and devitalizing. 

Whether as investigator a faculty obeys the laws of sci- 
entific research can quickly and profitably be ascertained. 



172 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Until surveyed the methods of faculty investigation and re- 
port are apt to be these : 

1. The assignment is too generally worded. 

2. The committee " lets George do " most of the work 
and me-too's his conclusions. 

3. The study is not carefully outlined. 

4. Only a small fraction of the necessary facts are sought 
and obtained. 

5. A report of opinion rather than of facts is given. 

Other earmarks of deficient investigation include these : 

6. The faculty receives, debates, and accepts or rejects 
the report without having studied it in advance of dis- 
cussion. 

7. The facts are selectively, not adequately, summarized. 

8. The report does not jibe with facts reported. 

9. Action does not jibe with the report. 

10. The record does not jibe with action taken. 

62. Faculty Salaries and Tenure 

This question illustrates the point made earlier, about the 
limitations of comparative studies. True, it may help 
slightly to report that salaries of College A are above or 
below salaries of College B, but seldom have trustees of 
College A fixed their salaries with reference to College B. 
On the contrary, the salary schedule of each college is chiefly 
the result of local comparisons and conditions. It is these 
local factors which surveyors will profitably seek first : 

1. What difficulties due to salary are experienced in se- 
curing new faculty members of each grade ? 

2. How many and which instructors have left in the last 
two years because of higher salaries elsewhere, either 
in colleges or other fields ? 

3. What salaries are men of similar training and ca- 
pacity — equal years in and out of college, equal ex- 
pense for preparation — receiving in other fields in 
this locality? 



Salary Questions 173 

4. How do salaries compare with teaching salaries in 
secondary and elementary schools, each grade? 

5. How do costs of living — in this locality, not 
weighted costs for the country — compare with col- 
lege salaries? 

6. How do teaching salaries, each grade, compare with 
administrative salaries and clerical salaries ? 

7. What, if any, deduction has heretofore been made in 
salaries because the college was on the accredited list 
of the Carnegie Foundation, or what, if any, addi- 
tions have been made because the college is not on the 
Carnegie list ? What evidence is there that positions 
in a college are more or less attractive because it is 
or is not on the Carnegie list ? 

8. What local pension plan is there and how does it af- 
fect salary schedules and the power to hold in- 
structors ? 

The foregoing questions relate to college salaries as they 
are, without questioning the equity of their distribution. 
In many colleges difficulties are due to inequitable distri- 
bution rather than to inadequate totals. Such questions as 
these are therefore also necessary : 

1. Is there a salary schedule for each grade of in- 
structor? F. . . N.., 

2. Who determines whether and when increases shall 
come? 

3. What is the fixed increment for er ch grade? 

4. How many exceptions to the schedule are there ? On 
what are they based? Is *heir existence known to 
other faculty members? 

5. Are exceptions due to importunities by instructors; 
to within-college politics; to away-from-college ad- 
vertising; to bona fide invitations from other col- 
leges with higher salaries or greater opportunities; 
to merit that compels recognition ? 

6. Does the system overlook instructors who concen- 
trate upon service to the college and refuse to use 



174 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

meretricious methods of attracting the attention of 
trustees and superior officers or tentative invitations 
from other colleges? Y.., N,.. 

7. What is the evidence that a college really loses when 
it lets a strong man go to a higher salary in another 
college ? 

8. Are the instructors obtainable at the lower grades of 
position and salary as highly qualified as they should 
be for the heavy work they carry ? Y, , . N, . , 

9. Would a higher salary rate for initial positions bring 
forward as candidates men and women well trained 
academically who in addition have demonstrated their 
ability as trainers and scholars in secondary schools 
or as school superintendents ? 

Campaigns for higher college salaries will be more ef- 
fective after faculties begin with facts about the quantity, 
quality, and social usefulness of the services they render. 
If for a generation not a word were said about salaries, and 
if faculties concerned themselves with the efficiency of their 
work, college salaries would increase more rapidly than via 
complaints that salaries are too low or campaigns for in- 
creased endowment. 

There are two salary issues regarding which action will 
not for some time be fitted to theory. In spite of conclu- 
sive evidence that special ability should be specially re- 
warded, faculties will protest against unequal salaries for 
equal titles and equal tenure. Secondly, in spite of con- 
clusive evidence that a college teacher is entitled to a higher 
salary than a hand worker, apprentice rates will be continued 
and frequently lowered for salaries of initial teaching in 
colleges and universities. 

The argument against salary schedules is effectively stated 
by President Butler in the annual report for Columbia, 
1916: 

" All proposals to pay the same salary to men who hold the 
same title or who have served the same number of years are 
proposals to reward indifference and incompetence at the cost 



Explaining Salary Increases 17 S 

of devotion and achievement. They are the usual undemo- 
cratic but highly popular device of leveling down, under the 
illusory belief that this produces equality and that such an 
equality is democratic. What this device really produces is 
inequality, and this inequality is most undemocratic. There is 
no more reason why all academic officers who have the same 
title should receive the same compensation than there is why 
all men of the same height or the same complexion should be 
paid the same wage. The man of experience and of either 
teaching power or genius for investigation should be advanced, 
both in compensation and in grade, as rapidly as possible and 
without any regard to the fate of others who are without his 
talent or capacity. Only in this way can a university be kept 
the home of excellence and prevented from becoming an asylum 
of mediocrities.** 

Yet after conceding premises, arguments, and conclusions 
against salary schedules, American faculties insist that the 
frying pan is safer than the fire; that what sets out to be 
recognition of genius in scholarship, teaching, and investiga- 
tion quickly becomes special favor for genius in flattery, self- 
advertising, obsequiousness, non-instructional service, and 
college politics. 

A self-survey by all colleges of special salary recognitions 
would list the following as to each person advanced out of 
order or beyond normal for his group : 

1. Length of service in this college. 

2. Times and dates when advanced out of order. 

3. Reasons assigned and recorded. 

4. Additional reasons understood privately. 

5. Steps taken before increasing salaries; i.e., who in- 
itiated it, — the president, a dean, a department head, 
a department, or the instructor himself? 

6. If because of an outside offer, what steps were taken 
to verify the offer? Was it in writing, verbal, defi- 
nite, or just a nibble? 

7. Did a bona fide outside offer come because of work 
done in and for the college or away from the college, 
such as attendance at educational conventions? 



176 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

8. Was the feeling as to the instructor's value compared 
with facts as to the power to draw and hold students ; 
efficiency of instruction and contact; ability to work 
with faculty? 

9. Was each proposal to advance a member out of order 
made the occasion of a survey or inventory to see 
whether it was special ability or accident that was to 
be recognized? 

10. What were his contributions to science and literature? 

11. Are colleagues deprived of consideration for salary 
advances because of the accident that some other col- 
lege has not, for its own reasons, offered them more 
than they receive here? 

12. Have the president and deans such information with 
respect to all faculty members that they are qualified 
to recognize special ability and to distinguish between 
aggressive mediocrity and modest superiority? 

As to initial salaries of young men, they will undoubtedly 
decrease as salaries of full professors increase. So obvious 
and so many are the opportunities for self -improvement and 
professional advancement offered by teaching positions in 
colleges and universities that with a free field and no favor 
men will be willing to pay for those opportunities just as 
promising men pay tuition to graduate schools for three 
years and find it a good investment. The three principal 
questions, therefore, have nothing to do with salary but are 
these : 

1. Does a teaching position at our college demonstrably 
offer opportunities for self -improvement and pro- 
fessional advancement? F... N,,, ?,,, 

2. Do we advertise widely these opportunities, especially 
among successful teachers in secondary schools? 
Y N ^ 

3. Are our specifications and our method of selection 
such as to secure teaching ability? Y. . . iV. . . 

• • • • 

Last of all may academic groups pin their faith to such 



Salary Averages a Snare 'i-77 

salary precepts as those that the Iowa survey commission 
employed : 

" The practice of the stronger institutions in this country 
indicates that the average salary for a department should 
be at least $2000 a year. In the judgment of the commis- 
sion this amount should be regarded for the time being as 
the reasonable minimum average in collegiate departments." 
Typical of Iowa extremes are these : 

Department Average Maximum Minimum 

Botany $1517 $2500 $800 

Chemistry 1430 3000 100 

Education 2300 3500 900 

English 1580 3500 998 

Public Speaking 1325 1650 100 

Geology 1900 2600 450 

German 1671 3000 160 

History i960 3500 800 

Mathematics 1580 3000 1000 

Philosophy and Psychology 2300 3500 1500 

Political Economy and Sociology 2200 3000 1000 

Political Science 1700 2600 1000 

Mixing maximum and minimum salaries produces just as 
worthless a figure in averages as does mixing maximum and 
minimimi occupancy of a schoolroom, or mixing a man who 
has taught 25 years with four others who have never taught 
to get an average of five years of previous teaching. 

63. Faculty Supervision of Research and Graduate Work 

No one claims that college and university faculties have 
been hampered from without in protecting their own stand- 
ards of research and graduate work. Presidents, trustees, 
and deans have not trespassed. Democracy has been so free 
— and so inarticulate — that it often spells anarchy. 
Worse still, the " tyranny of the mob " has compelled fac- 
ulties to applaud unscholarly work and without investiga- 
tion to resent question or criticism. Where ignorance is 
bliss 'tis folly to start bureaucratic machinery for testing 
professional scholarship or supervision ! 

Whether departments or deans certify to scholarship of 



178 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

instructors recommended for appointment or promotion 
without testing it self-surveyors can easily learn. Whether 
trustees, presidents, and deans accept faith-born certificates 
on faith can be learned. Whether departments or faculties 
have organized crucibles for helping via frankly and scien- 
tifically testing one another's products will be quickly 
learned. Whether they want frank testing is another matter. 
Graduate work from the student's point of view is re- 
ferred to on pages 285 fif. We speak here of faculty protec- 
tion of faculty against inadequate supervision of graduate 
work. Degrees are given in the name of the faculty, not by 
individual departments. Low standards in Latin hurt the 
prestige, at home and abroad, of history and English, high 
standards in mathematics benefit German. Rules for test- 
ing candidates are faculty-made. The examining com- 
mittees which question candidates and read dissertations rep- 
resent the whole faculty as well as their own departments 
or the graduate dean who asks them to serve. Any break- 
down in the procedure is a breakdown of faculty democracy. 
Efforts to improve procedure via executive order would be 
resented, therefore the need for faculty surveys. 

1. Are examinations for advanced degrees perfunctory? 
F... AT... 

2. Do examiners prepare themselves? F. . . N.,, 
Do they study candidate's record, including written 
work? y... N,,, Do they read candidate's 
thesis? y. . . N,., Or do they take examina- 
tion time asking questions about studies and thesis? 
F... AT... 

3. Are questions fundamental ... or " catch " . . . ? 

4. Are minutes taken at least of questions . . ., prefer- 
ably of all proceedings . . . ? 

5. Is the graduate dean present? F. . . N . . . Does 
he ask questions ? F . . . N . . . 

6. Is the examination advertised? F. . . N . . . Is it 
really open to visitors ? F . . . N . . , Do they 
come? F... N... 



Doctor s Theses Tested 179 

7. Are examiners free and equal? y. . . iV... Or 
does the major professor dominate? Y.,, N.., 
Does each examiner accept wrong or incomplete an- 
swers to questions asked by others ? Y. . . N, , , 

8. Does faculty ever wonder why so few fail in spite 
of rumors of weakness? How many have been ex- 
amined in five years, each department? How many 
failed ? How many failures tried again ? how soon ? 
with what result ? 

9. Has faculty the power of recall or referendum to 
protect itself against stultifying standards in any 
department or actual frauds in the faculty's name? 

y... iV... 

10. Has the faculty organized a court of appeal for 
students who feel aggrieved by prejudice or catch 
questions or vacillating standards? F. . . N. ., 

Nor are these mere rhetorical questions. On the con- 
trary they are vitally needed. Whether faculties which 
give advanced degrees will answer them democratically or 
obsequiously, truthfully or evasively, is a test of faculty 
democracy. One concrete example will help self -surveyors 
ask questions about home practices. 

A doctor's thesis was approved by his major professor 
for content and scholarship, by the graduate dean and li- 
brarian for form. The major professor was chosen as ex- 
ecutive of a great educational opportunity largely on the 
strength of credentials for supervision of scholarly work. 
The institution which advertised his scholarship and that 
of the candidate here referred to attracts graduates in large 
numbers for widely advertised opportunity to do scholarly 
work. The candidate was invited to another state on the 
strength of scholarship alleged to be typified by his thesis. 
Here are some of the salient facts about this thesis as re- 
ported and checked by Janet R. Rankin and Walter Mat- 
scheck, two experienced analysts. 

Typical superficial errors 

I. Errors in English are numerous, such as judgments is. 



i8o Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

2. On page 83 is a table so badly typed that no proof- 
reader could make it out. Figures are run together, 
columns are not separated, commas are typed over 
figures, " and the whole is wildly unintelligible." 

3. Section 46 of statutes cited is section 31. 

4. On page 80 the summary of two tables gives all per- 
centages 100 times too high, the decimal point prov- 
ing consistently obdurate. 

5. The formula on which the whole thesis depends is not 
only wrong but is attributed to the wrong man. 

Typical omissions of essential data 

6. There is no table of contents. 

7. There is no index. 

8. There is no bibliography. 

9. An important law is quoted without citation. 

10. A page insert referred to is lacking; for another ref- 
erence the page is not filled in. 

11. The basic formula is not explained until page 74, 
where another formula is attributed to the wrong 
man. 

12. The questionnaire from answers to which basic data 
were culled is not given. 

Unscientific methods used 

13. Method used at one point is called incorrect at an- 
other. 

14. " Owing to a typographical error in the^question- 
naire," author says five was written for six, which 
vitiated a considerable part of the replies. 

15. Because 1905 figures were used instead of available 
1 914 figures, wrong statements were made regarding 
one vital fact. 

16. Elements of efficiency were obtained by asking 100 
persons to list what they considered the ten most im- 
portant elements. Thus 98 elements were named 
from which candidate selected the ten which had been 
oftenest listed — utterly regardless of inherent value 
of elements. 



Undemocratic Departments i8i 

ly. Conclusions are forced by sometimes omitting and 
sometimes using relevant material and by otherwise 
changing bases. 

i8. The majority of plottings on curves are incorrect; 
e.g., 1.5 is plotted as 2.0; .2 as .8; .02 as ,04, etc., etc. 

64. Departmental Meetings and Conferences 

The very faculty members who protest most bitterly 
against administrative encroachment by dean or president 
will often be found most undemocratic in their manage- 
ment of departmental affairs. Secrets are kept by depart- 
ment chairmen from colleagues or perhaps by professors 
from professors, or by all of professorial rank from those 
below professorial rank. Understandings are violated; 
misunderstandings fostered; personalities are permitted to 
interfere with free suggestion and open consideration of 
alternatives. 

The nature of departmental organization and the ease 
and wholesomeness of its workings are important objects 
of study. It will be necessary in most colleges to distin- 
guish between what is supposed to be done and what is 
actually done. Regulations may say that departmental bud- 
gets originate with departmental groups as a result of de- 
partmental conferences. The facts may prove that there 
are no conferences and no knowledge by the group until 
long after the chairman has practically settled for a year 
to come the department's fortunes. Again, the fact that 
one department fails to comply with regulations does not 
mean that other departments are not complying. There- 
fore it is necessary to know both the advertised and actual 
procedure of each department. 

To insure definite memory and accurate description it is 
necessary to ask what steps were taken and when with re- 
spect to the department's last budget, or the department's 
last five new instructors, or the department's conferences 
last year upon teaching efficiency. 

One mistaken belief will be found generally interfering 
with departmental democracy; viz., that written announce- 



1 82 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ments, written catalogs, written reports, written under- 
standings, and written minutes foster perfunctory attitudes. 
On the contrary, following an agreed-upon procedure and 
taking each step in writing foster democracy and coopera- 
tion by reducing or eliminating the possibility of trouble 
and delay due to injection or assertion of personalities and 
factionalism. 

Is it absurd for a department with only three or five mem- 
bers to record its plans, agreements, proposals, and actions ? 
Comparison of written procedure with results will show 
that it is not absurd even for a department with but one 
person to leave a businesslike written record showing al- 
ternatives considered; alternatives rejected, with reasons; 
alternatives accepted; and projects outlined. 

65. Interdepartmental Conferences 

The more wheels within wheels and the more cogs dove- 
tailing with other cogs, the more necessary is it to have a 
procedure for supplying interrelated faculties with com- 
mon purpose and common language. 

Not letting the right hand know what the left hand does 
has proved wasteful in so many ways that faculties, from 
college to elementary school, are now developing interde- 
partmental conferences. Teachers of English cannot suc- 
ceed without the aid of teachers of history, physics, and 
economics. This aid they cannot secure without first se- 
curing the attention of those instructors of other than Eng- 
lish classes to the importance of the spoken and written 
English that is accepted and required. Unless the eco- 
nomics department acquaints itself with the application of 
its subjects to engineering and agriculture, these other di- 
visions will reasonably demand special instructors in en- 
gineering, economics, and agricultural economics. 

For a given college surveyors must therefore ask : 

1. What subjects naturally dovetail or should be made 
to dovetail; i.e., to reinforce one another? 

2. In what ways is this dovetailing now recognized by 




Self-support and instruction 



Berea College 




Self-support and instruction 



Berea 




Cooperation, economy, instruction Berea 

High cost of living means fewer students 



Interdepartmental Cooperation 183 

the departments responsible for those subjects? 

3. What conferences are there among related depart- 
ments when planning the new year's work? When 
new courses are proposed? When new instructors 
are brought in? What agreements now exist with 
respect to cooperation among departments ? 

4. What steps are taken to see how agreements are 
working ? 

5. Are they trying to bring all members to meetings . . . 
or are departments represented by delegates . . . ? 

6. How are conference conclusions made known to 
members not present and to deans and presidents ? 

7. Are annual summaries made of advance steps due to 
inter-departmental cooperation ? Y, , . AT . . . / . . . 

66. Educational Conventions 

State and national conventions cannot be ignored by edu- 
cational managements. Even if their educational contri- 
butions were negligible, they must be considered as clearing 
houses and stepping stones for men wishing calls from 
other colleges or increased salaries at home. . Nor can col- 
leges afford to ignore such recurrent drains upon college 
energy as conventions represent, not so much because of 
time required to attend them, as because of time spent in 
preparing for them — and in getting over them ! 

Whether contributions to conventions result in net gains 
or net losses to a particular college can be ascertained by 
self-surveys. Whether the benefits are distributed equally 
among departments and faculty members and how directly 
students share in them can also be ascertained by requiring 
such facts as these : 

1. The number of state, district, and national conven- 
tions which deal with subjects treated at the college 
surveyed. 

2. The number of college instructors or officers attend- 
ing each convention. 

3. The number of persons engaged in each line who 



184 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

did not attend its convention last year; the year be- 
fore ; the last five years. 

4. The number of " rounders " or " repeaters " in the 
faculty who at the expense of the college or them- 
selves attend meetings regularly. 

5. The amount of college time and college money spent 
upon these trips. 

6. The ways in which those who do not attend con- 
ventions are acquainted with proceedings at conven- 
tions; i.e., through written or verbal reports to fac- 
ulty, trustees, faculty groups, or students. 

7. Steps taken to follow up and apply locally the sug- 
gestions received from conventions. 

8. The number of men who have received invitations 
from other colleges because of visits to conventions. 

9. The number of men drawn from other colleges be- 
cause met at conventions. 

10. Concrete evidences that instruction or management 
or team spirit has appreciably benefited. 

11. Concrete evidences that individual subjects or de- 
partments or the whole college have failed to benefit 
either because conventions were not attended or con- 
vention benefits not followed up. 

Shortly after trustees begin to ask about college benefits 
received from faculty conventions, they will wish to get to- 
gether to compare experiences and to discuss problems 
peculiar to lay sponsors for the huge expenditures for 
higher education. 



VI 

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OF 
STUDENTS 

67. Student Cost of Living, Room and Board 

UNFORTUNATELY no one knows how many high- 
school boys and girls have given up hope of going to 
college because they cannot afford the cost of living away 
from home while taking a college course. They could spare 
the time; they could go without earning; they could raise 
the tuition: they could not give time, go without earning, 
pay tuition, and pay for board and room. 

Many colleges have allowed landlords and grocerymen 
to absorb margins of paying power which students would 
have been glad to pay for higher tuition or for wider col- 
lege opportunities. So great have been recent increases in 
cost of living that colleges out of self-defense must con- 
sider the student's problem their own problem and will 
wisely begin by asking whether they themselves are doing 
all that might be done, first to check advance of costs, and 
secondly, to reduce costs. 

One obstacle to moderate living expenses is the leisure- 
class theory which Veblen breaks into three canons or re- 
quirements: conspicuous waste; conspicuous consumption; 
and conspicuous leisure. Fewer and fewer are the colleges 
that are proud of their low cost of living. Even state uni- 
versities dread what one president says would be *' bar- 
racks " and covet what he calls " residential halls.'' Thus 
we find college dormitories running often without effort to 
make them entirely self-supporting and sometimes without 
effort to fit the charge to student ability to pay ; i.e., to stu- 
dent home standards. 

Paralleling these psychological barriers to low cost of 
living is another movement which demands higher sanitary 
standards for rooming and boarding houses, which are in- 
variably used as excuses for increased prices. Cleanliness, 

i8s 



1 86 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ventilation, light, cubic space, running water, pure foods, 
etc., cost money. 

The first step in a survey of living conditions is to an- 
alyze and describe them : 

1. Is it known how many rooms for how many students 
are available outside of college dormitories? Y . , , 
AT... 

2. Is a directory distributed among students giving 
prices and facts as to location and size of room, near- 
ness to toilet and bath, exposure, windows, artificial 
light, wardrobes ? y . . . N . . , 

3. Is one college committee or officer responsible for all 
descriptions 1 Y , , , N . , , 

4. Are students encouraged to reduce congestion and 
rent by walking to distant houses ? Y . . , N . . , 

5. Will the college give credits toward "gym" for 
walking over a mile two or more times daily? F. . . 
iV... . 

6. Are restaurants and boarding houses inspected? 
y... N.,. How often? By whom? How defi- 
nitely ? 

7. Are results of inspection made known to students? 
y... A'... 

8. Are retail prices studied and compared with prices in 
near-by non-college towns of similar size? Y.,, 
N.,. 

9. Does the college prohibit students from living or 
boarding in places which do not conform to minimum 
standards of sanitation and propriety? Y,., 
N... 

10. Is information about living alternatives sent to stu- 
dents' homes so that parents and principals may help 
select accommodations fitted to financial ability? 

y... AT... 

11. Are typical student budgets to show minimum possi- 
bilities and various grades up to the maximum per- 
missible included in statements to parents and pupils ? 
y... iV... 



Student Expense Budgets 



187 



Only by answering such questions and acting in accordance 
with evidence obtained can colleges reduce the unearned in- 
crement which a few stronger forces in a college town will 
manage to absorb. 

Having college dormitories does not remove the im- 
portance of questions like the above. The modern idea is 
that every boarding and rooming place is part of the offi- 
cial accommodations offered by a college ; it helps select and 
it supervises. Few colleges as yet have dormitories enough 
so that by competition they can compel lower and better ac- 
commodations outside. Laboratory use of need for in- 
formation regarding living costs can be made by classes in 
household economics, statistical method, etc. 

Student budgets of expenses will disclose factors that are 
artificially raising the cost of living. Several women's col- 



student Expenses — Smith '. 

September— October 


cooperative study, 8%xl0% 

Sept. Oct. Class No. 


[Student's stub 
11 heads] 


[Total] I 


DAY 


Tuition 

and 

Extra Fees 


Board 

and 

Room 


TUITION and EXTRA 
FEES 


















TOTAL 


Other expense headings to be filled out day by day and returned, and to 
be summarized on the stub retained by the student, were: 


Clothing 


Laundry 


Traveling 
Expenses 


HEALTH 


Extra Food 
Recreation 
Hospitality 






















Dues and 
Subscriptions 


Books 

Stamps and 

Stationery 


Church 
Charity 


Incidentals 


TOTALS 

























1 88 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

leges have for some time been having student budgets kept 
for information about the cost of Hving and particularly to 
train students in investigation and in budget keeping. An 
extensive study was made by Smith in 19 14, where each stu- 
dent recorded through several months, in books provided by 
the college, expenses as noted on the preceding page. 

Any advice to parents which Yale feels free to give can 
with dignity be duplicated by other colleges. President 
Hadley warns parents against allowing students too much 
for college expenses. What he considers moderate for 
Yale would be immoderate for 590 of our 600 colleges. 
The principle is clear, however, that unless colleges impose 
restrictions upon the few students who have ability to spend 
too much, those students will progressively force up the 
standard of living for all other students. It takes but a 
short time for a student body to change unrecognizably. 

Over dormitory standards the college has complete con- 
trol. If inquiry shows that rooms or board cost more than 
necessary, immediate remedy for several conditions may be 
possible. 

1. Are payments required in advance? F. . . iV. . . 

2. Are "bad debts" followed until collected? Y.,. 

3. Is purchasing done advantageously? F. . . N.,, 

4. Are food portions standardized? F. . . A^. . . 

5. What is done to reduce and to use table waste? 
F... iV... 

6. Are staple supplies bought at wholesale prices? 
F... iV... 

7. Are purchases tested for quality and quantity? 
F... AT... 

8. Can students wait on table without social prejudice? 
F... N... 

9. Is the dietary balanced? F. . . N, , , 

10. Is it too restricted for the price ? F. . . N.., 

11. Could a palatable, wholesome dietary be supplied at a 
lower price ; i.e., is the present dietary unnecessarily 
elaborate and expensive? F. . . N. , , 



Dormitory Management 189 

12. When costs are counted, is a charge made to cover 
all overhead, including interest charges ? Y . . , 
AT... 

13. Is dormitory space economically used ; i.e., could more 
rooms be obtained? F. . . iV. . . 

14. Could prices be scaled down by increasing the num- 
ber of rooms without making rooms too small for 
convenience and health? Y, , . N . , . 

15. Are room prices adjusted to market value of space; 
i.e., could the minimum be lowered by charging more 
for rooms with exceptional advantages? Y.,. 
N.,. 

16. Is the cafeteria idea feasible so that the service cost 
can be reduced ? 

17. Is the a la carte idea workable? 

18. Is the "club meal" idea workable; e.g., may stu- 
dents wishing cereal and milk for breakfast buy that 
only? 

19. What is done to interest students in food alterna- 
tives and to show them what many must learn later, 
that '* Mann ist was er issn't " is truer than that 
" Mann ist was er isst " ? 

20. What is done to encourage cooperative student hous- 
ing? 

21. Are secret societies or other clubs supervised and pre- 
vented from unduly raising the standards of living 
for themselves and other students ? Y , , , N, , , 
f . . . 

22. Do the published statements about the income and ex- 
penses of dormitory represent the truth . . . ; or do 
they appear self-supporting when they lose money 
. . . ; or are they called self-supporting when they pay 
nothing toward rent . . . ? 

23. Must the commissary pay for itself as it goes; i.e., 
are the records such as to show not merely what 
money has been paid out but also the value of goods 
consumed week by week? F. . . N.., Minne- 
sota's dormitories know currently whether they are 



190 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

running ahead or behind, and if celebrating a foot- 
ball victory makes last week's cost excessive the 
steward cuts down on next week's desserts or meats. 



MIAMI UNIVERSITY 

BOARDING DEPARTMENT LxTNCH AND Dinner 



BBEASrAST 

DAILY REPORT 

BISHOP HEPBURN COMMONS TOTAL 

Number regular boarders for current 

week 

Number of university employees served 

Total number of boarders (basis for 

food allowance) 

Allowance for food supplies per day 

Amount requisitioned for food supplies , 

Profit for this day 

Loss for this day 

Profit per day for current month 

Loss per day for current month , 

Profit per day for corresponding month 

last year 

Profit per day for best month — current 

year 

Income from single meal tickets for 

current month to date 

Income from single meal tickets for 

best month — current year 

Actual number of meals served: 

Regular boarders 

Employees 

By single meal tickets 

Guests 

Total 

Cost per meal served 

Remarks: 



Boarding Efficiency Checks 

BOARDING DEPARTMENT 



191 



Matron's Daily Report 



Hall 

Lunch and Dinner- 
Breakfast 



Menu — As Served 
Lunch 



Dinner 



Breakfast 



REPORT ON SERVICE 
Names of employees reporting late: 
Instances of unsatisfactory service — by whom — 
Report of dishes broken in kitchen (number, kind, by 

whom). 
General Remarks: 



(Signed)- 



REMARKS 
(i) Reasons for 
changes in 
menu if any? 

(2) Was menu as 

served satisfac- 
tory? 

(3) What items were 

unsatisfactory ? 

(4) What foods re- 

turned to kitch- 
en uneaten? 
Why? 

(5) What dishes were 

poorly cooked? 

(6) Suggested 

changes if menu 
is used again 

(7) Were supplies re- 

c e i V e d from 
s t o re-room on 
time? 

(8) Condition of sup- 

plies: 
Meats 
Fruits 
Vegetables 
Miscl. 



Matron 

Receipts for new dishes used, unit costs, and additional 
remarks or suggestions should be given on reverse side 
of this sheet. 

BOARDING DEPARTMENT 



DO NOT WRITE 
HERE 

Total meals served 

Total cost — 

Cost per meal served 



Daily Report — Head Waiter 



Hall 
Date 



NUMBER MEALS SERVED 

LUNCH dinner BREAKFAST TOTAL 

Regular boarders 

Employees 

Single meal tickets 

Guests 

Total 

(Turn in single meal and guest tickets with report) 

Names of waiters reporting late or absent and reason: 
Instances of unsatisfactory service — by whom — 
Report of dishes broken in dining room (number, kind, 

by whom) 
Was service prompt and satisfactory? 
If not indicate reason for delay, etc. 
In your judgment how satisfactory was menu to 

boarders? Check below. 

BREAKFAST LUNCHEON DINNER 

Exceptionally good 

Good 

Fair 

Unsatisfactory 

Remarks : 

( Signed) 



(i) Were meals 
served on sched- 
ule? 

(2) What items in 

menu were un- 
satisfactory ? 

(3) What foods re- 

turned to kitch- 
en uneaten? 
Why? 

(4) What dishes were 

poorly cooked? 

(5) Was there short- 

age in quantity 
of any item? 

(6) Gen eral appear- 

ance of 
(i) Tables 
(2) Food 



192 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 
68. Cost of High Living 

Were the cost of board, room, and clothes to decrease for 
ten years, were colleges to give free board and room, it is 
probable that the gross cost of living at colleges would go 
on increasing. College boys and girls tend to spend all 
their parents will afford. The reason one thousand dollars 
is moderate at Yale is not that New Haven's living costs 
are high but that there is high living among Yale men. 
For every fifty dollars parents are willing to add to tuition 
they gladly add one or two hundred toward high living. 
Our sons must " keep up." Were it not tragic it would 
be amusing that college instructors, Juno-eyed, watch the 
same fond parents or taxpayers refuse to keep instructors' 
salaries growing with growing costs of living, and lavishly 
finance artificially raised costs of high living among stu- 
dents. 

Among causes at work everywhere to increase high living 
by college students are these, all of which lend themselves 
readily to discovery, location, description, and control via 
cooperation of trustees, faculty, and student organizations: 

1. The secret or other social club, accentuated when in- 
tercollegiate. 

2. Intercollegiate athletics with practically compulsory 
tax for games at home and abroad. 

3. Unrestrained expenditures by the few whose parents 
want them " to make a splash " ; specifically the auto- 
mobile and tomorrow's airship. 

4. Natural social preferment by faculty as well as stu- 
dents of those who have money to spend. 

5. Lack of community parties where the only aristoc- 
racy is ability to compete in singing, games, conversa- 
tion, entertainment. 

6. Student functions which constitute practical assess- 
ment upon loyalty and pocketbook — Junior prom, 
glee club, theatrical society — and where those who 
can spend set the pace. 

7. Faculty failure to prove interest in brain contests and 



Limiting Student Extravagance 193 

inexpensive entertainments, annual oratorical and de- 
bate contests, dramatics, photography-club exhibit. 

8. Failure of catalog or advisers to inform parents and 
students of alternatives to high living and extrava- 
gance. 

9. Failure of private colleges to announce that profligate 
or extravagant students v^ill not be allowed to re- 
main and thus licensed to levy taxes upon the entire 
student body. 

69. The Out'of'State Student 

The state-supported college cannot legally — without leg- 
islation — limit home-state student expenditures. It can 
set such students an example in the conduct of its own dor- 
mitories and restaurants and in its control of student clubs 
and activities. It can enforce economy as well as honesty 
and accountability upon organized student activities. With 
out-of-state students it is free to repress extravagance un- 
relentingly 

1. By exacting pledges in advance not to exceed a fixed 
limit and to keep accounts subject to audit. 

2. By dismissing upon evidence, without refunds. 

3. By refusing registration to reduce congestion and 
higher rents. 

4. By conditioning registration upon residing outside 
the congested area. Wisconsin by state law gives 
resident students preference in dormitories. All 
state-supported dormitories should report non-resi- 
dents housed. 

5. By limiting membership in student social clubs. 

6. By exacting a higher standard of scholarship for reg- 
istration and for continuance, coupled with a lower 
leeway of permissible unexcused absences. It takes 
time to be pleasurably extravagant. 

7. By requiring participation (by undergraduates) in in- 
tellectual or non-social activities. 

Every state-supported institution can easily learn for each 



194 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

item of living cost what each student, resident as well as 
non-resident, spends. Pains must be taken to secure total 
costs, including money spent at home upon clothes for col- 
lege use, etc., as well as amount spent in the college town. 
The totals (obtained by the board of visitors) for non- 
residents at the University of Wisconsin in 19 14 included 
these : 

Of 649 comparable non-residents, 409 or 64% spent over 

$500 and 141 or 22% spent over $700. 
Of 825 comparable resident students, 260 or 32% spent 

over $500 and 48 or less than 6^0 spent over $700. 

It would be helpful to know how those spending over $500 
and over $700 are related to one another, to college politics, 
fraternities, society affairs, and scholarship. Such correla- 
tions self -surveys even by students can easily make. 

70. Student Assemblies 

That the assembling of students promotes college spirit 
and liberalizes the individual is universally believed. 
Whether the assembling should be at chapel exercises, at 
athletic contests, at choral services, or so-called assemblies 
has become an acute problem. In many institutions of 
higher learning the unofficial compulsion to attend football 
games is more effective than official compulsion to attend 
chapel or assembly. For this result the unattractiveness 
of chapel and assembly shares responsibility with the attrac- 
tiveness of athletic contests. Whatever the reason, self- 
surveyors will want to locate it. 

From official records may be learned what assemblies 
there are ; how often ; whether compulsory or optional ; how 
large the estimated attendance and non-attendance; the 
names, number, and topics of speakers; whether there is a 
whole-hearted inspiring welcome to new students the first 
week; whether assembly plans are fitted to out-of -college 
advertising or to students at college. Inquiry will disclose 
how definitely these meetings are planned and whether in 



Assemblies an Asset 195 

purpose and execution they justify attendance by the stu- 
dent body. 

To learn what the faculty and students think about as- 
semblies will call for " scouting " or preferably for ques- 
tionnaires. Frank answers will be given, will indicate 
where assemblies have heretofore been unattractive, and 
may bring worthwhile suggestions like these: 

1. That there be more contributions by both students 
and faculty, as in freshman addresses at Reed Col- 
lege. 

2. That home talent be not displaced by foreign talent. 

3. That there be special assemblies for students having 
common interests, for all students within a college, 
for all students who can meet most conveniently at 
four o'clock or at ten o'clock, for all students taking 
English courses. 

4. That there be community music at all assemblies. 

5. That faculty members explain advances, discoveries, 
or leading personalities in their field. 

6. That graduate students test the value and interest of 
their researches. 

7. That president and deans appear oftener. 

8. That assembly exercises be used to correlate courses 
as in former days presidents used assemblies for 
plain talks that were really courses in civics and so- 
ciology ; and as President Stowe of Toledo University 
is now giving compulsory courses (three credits) to 
freshmen on (a) principles of human behavior and 
(b) the university and the value of education. 

9. That departments as such take turns in being re- 
sponsible for assemblies. 

10. That results of the *' help-your-college complaint and 
suggestion box " be made part of the assembly pro- 
gram. 

Many a college in need of funds is desperately seeking 
friends outside of college while neglecting the opportunities 
and resources that proper assemblies would generate. 



196 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

71. Student Self -Government 

Wherever efficiently tried, student self-government has 
reduced several kinds of waste : purpose waste, time waste, 
money waste. Whether a college has efficiently or ineffi- 
ciently tested student cooperation in effecting student self- 
government and student democracy or has not even tried it 
can quickly be learned by self -surveyors. How first steps 
shall be taken, or how extension shall be made or improve- 
ments effected in execution, will require study and discus- 
sion. 

It is reason enough for self-government that it releases 
faculty energy for instructional purposes. Again, it would 
justify itself if only it reduced student license to waste stu- 
dent time and opportunity. An even more important rea- 
son is that properly administered self-government in college 
is admirable field training for self-government after college. 

The points to be surveyed in self-government of the stu- 
dent organization are practically the same as those to be 
examined in college management. What does the self-gov- 
ernment association set out to do? How does it go about 
these duties and exercise these powers? What are the re- 
sults ? Obstacles to success include these : 

1. Too few powers and duties are given to self-govern- 
ment association; i.e., it is limited to dormitories or 
to women's dormitories. 

2. Too few students participate. 

3. Fraternity or other factional politics dominate elec- 
tions. 

4. The constitution does not provide for referendum 
and recall, hence lax administration brings discredit 
and contempt and violation of rules with impunity. 

5. Often neither the individual defendant nor the stu- 
dent republic is protected. There is no appeal by the 
defendant against unreasonable harshness, or no ap- 
peal by the interested believer in order against a too 
lax judgment. 

6. Often faculties instead of working through student 



Limits to Self -Government 197 

organization overrule or disregard the student or- 
ganization, with the inevitable result of making stu- 
dents feel that self-government is a fiction. 

7. Accounts of stewardship by elected officers are insuf- 
ficient to inform and to interest the partners. Re- 
ports are indefinite, meetings are called without being 
properly announced, planned for, or conducted. 

8. Business meetings between student representatives 
and faculty are semi or pseudo social; i.e., wasteful; 
i.e., discouraging or demoralizing. 

9. As difficulties or even scandals arise, faculties or ad- 
ministrative officers too often become revolutionists 
or anarchists and require curtailment of student 
powers and responsibilities, thereby shifting to them- 
selves the real blame for a breakdown of student self- 
government. 

The following caution with respect to student self-gov- 
ernment comes from President Evans of Ripon : 

" The matter of student government is an intimate 
part of any educational policy and practical life train- 
ing. Student self-government is theoretically splendid, 
and practically too little efficient. The self is often 
more prominent than government. Virtue of freedom 
is too often formal, and because of immaturity, inex- 
perience, and lack of expert consecutive and mature 
leadership, degenerates into a species of license. 
' Think for yourself ' and * Work out your own prob- 
lems ' are proverbs which flatter the pride of students 
while they do not, and ought not, win their best judg- 
ment. 

" College administrative officers and faculties are 
placed to guide in right thinking and to encourage in 
right doing. It is more important to think aright and 
do aright than it is to think and to do alone." 

72. Group Relations of Students 

Professor R. B. Way of Beloit suggests that in addition 
to studying the individual student's part in student activities, 



igS Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

it will help to analyze group affiliations and their bearing 
upon living expenses and student spirit. This is a helpful 
reminder, because we are in danger of " not seeing the 
woods for the trees." 

Student groups have set an example so far as group 
honors — scholastic, athletic, social — are concerned. 
They conduct continuing and cumulative — and often ideal- 
ized — surveys of their influence and accomplishments. 
Their help could easily be enlisted in studies of each group's 
relation to the student body outside that group. Only by 
careful studies in this direction will colleges obtain the facts 
necessary to show the superior value of democratizing over 
snobbitizing activities, of literary over spending tests for 
admission to groups, of many over few groups. 

A first step is to secure for each group as a whole, and 
for each person in each group, a balance sheet of time and 
money spent (a) in just belonging; (b) in recreation con- 
nected with belonging; (c) in preparing for or performing 
the tests or services for which the group exists; e.g., de- 
bating, playing football, singing. 

The time and money cost imposed upon the whole student 
body or considerable sections of it by each group's activity 
should be studied also. Vicarious activity, dramatic or ath- 
letic, may be extravagant for the college in proportion as it 
is successful for the special group involved. 

Whether a college is attempting to understand and guide 
and use, or merely to police, student groups is as important 
as it is easy to learn. 

73. Supervision of Student Activities 

Between no supervision and too much supervision of stu- 
dent activities many colleges are finding a golden mean 
which increases 

1. The number of activities and equitability of student 
interest. 

2. The information available to students when weighing 
preference for outside activities. 



Equalising Student Participation 199 

3. The number belonging. 

4. The number participating. 

5. Requirements for admission and for continuing. 

6. Democracy among activities. 

7. Efficiency of activities. 

8. Value of activities to college morale. 

9. Help of activities in raising standards of scholarship 
and in reducing excessive drains upon student time. 

10. Credit of activities v^ith tradesmen. 

11. Use of activities for instructional purposes. 

12. Value to the individual student of contact and train- 
ing in these activities. 

Whether faculties are neglecting or patronizing student 
activities can be quickly learned. It is worth learning, too, 
because the worst and best features of a college are apt to 
be reflected in student management of student activities. 
The student daily, weekly, or annual publications often dis- 
close more accurately the restrictions and opportunities of 
a college than do the published utterances of trustees and 
officers. 

A student credit rating is now made by Miami University, 
a sort of standardized Bradstreet-Dun for the reputation of 
college students in paying debts, in keeping appointments, in 
carrying responsibility. By limiting unexcused absences to 
three and by an enforced study hour under supervision 
(page 284), Miami also indirectly curbs outside activities. 
Several other steps taken by colleges are listed in Record 
Aids in College Management. 

Among questions which self -surveyors will ask are these : 

1. Does the application blank call for students' experi- 
ence in outside activities when at preparatory school ? 
Y N 

2. Is a list of activities handed to students when register- 
ing, with the requirement that preferences be noted ? 
F... AT... 

3. Is a point system like Cornell's (women) used for 
active positions held or parts taken, so as to prevent 



200 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

concentration of duties — and benefits — among too 
few students? Y , . . N . . , 

4. Is class work correlated with outside activities as at 
Dartmouth, where written composition is credited ac- 
cording to the rate given it by student journals — 
whether accepted or not? F... N,,, Is work 
of intercollegiate debaters credited toward English 
or economics or history courses? y. . . N , , , 

5. Is a uniform system of accounts prescribed and au- 
dited? F... A^... Is the budget system en- 
forced? Y...N,., 

6. Is the auditing correlated with instruction in book- 
keeping? F. . . A''... 

7. Is a particular faculty member charged with respon- 
sibility for representing the faculty with outside ac- 
tivities? F... N,,, 

8. Does the college supplement outside social activities 
with general college parties . . . , or with faculty en- 
tertainments . . . which include students who for eco- 
nomic or other personal reasons and difficulties are 
not drawn into student groups ? 

9. Are there enough literary and scientific societies? 
F. . . N . . , Does successful membership in them 
win college distinction? F. . . A^. . . 

10. Must permission be received for society entertain- 
ments, including house parties and dances ? F . . . 
iV. . . Is it confined with few exceptions to Friday 
and Saturday nights? F. . . AT. . . 

11. Must chaperons be provided for all mixed parties? 
F . . . AT . . . Is this a mere formality ... or is 
chaperonage effective . . . ? Are chaperons made to 
enjoy their own part? Are amenities of cultured 
society first taught and then insisted upon? F. . . 
AT. . . Is the hour of closing fixed? F. . . N . . . 
Is it eleven o'clock . . . , midnight . . . , or three a.m. 
. . . ? 

12. Are fraternities or sororities prohibited ... or reg- 
ulated . . . ? Are pledging and rushing restricted to 




Pageant of the seasons 



Pennsylvania State College 








Folk dancing 



Pennsylvania State 




Saturday excursion Pennsylvania State 

Correlating work with good times 



Students on Outside Activities 201 

certain weeks ... or limited in method at whatever 
time . . . ? Is control exercised in requirements of 
work . . . rather than prohibitions . . . ? 

Of 231 Wisconsin upper classmen answering, 73 or 32% 
said outside activities took too much time, and 33 or 13% 
said they took too little. Among comments were these: 
Freshmen are too often urged to take part in too many 
activities; too little attention is given to literary activities; 
too few occasions offer when students may meet faculty 
socially. Of 351 faculty members answering definitely, 274 
expressed the belief that social diversions interfered with 
students' interest in and time for college work. 

74. Health Protection and Hygiene Instruction 

In the stone age of health supervision, say until the early 
go's, a favorite bromide of higher education was: Mens 
Sana in corpora sano. In the neo-health age of 1917, when 
higher education has begun to make soundness of body a 
minimum essential for registration and continuance, the old 
Latin quotation is almost forgotten. Sic semper empty 
utterances, however full of truth their words. So much is 
now done in so many ways for promotion of health and in- 
struction in hygiene, that only a few earmarks and short- 
cuts may be mentioned here. For concrete helps readers 
are referred to Record Aids in College Management, pp. 
40-52, which proves that few private patients, even of the 
wealthiest, receive physical supervision equal to that which 
many colleges are now aiming to make compulsory for all 
students. 

Health surveys will concern three main questions : (a) 
What health needs the student brings to college, (b) What 
health environment the student finds at college, (c) What 
health protection and benefits the student receives at col- 
lege. 

What health needs the student brings should be found out 
and is now being found out before registration is permitted. 
Fortunately, this requirement will help many below par 



202 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

beyond those accepted. Undoubtedly the general health 
certificate which several colleges require will soon give way 
to specific surveys from the family physician plus detailed 
student-answered questions such as several colleges now ask 
their students to answer when registering, and recurrently 
during residence; e.g., 

1. How many hours of exercise do you take a week ? 

2. How much time do you spend out of doors a week? 

3. Do you keep your bedroom windows open wide at 
night; how often do you change your underclothing 
in summer; winter? 

4. What weakness or tendency to ill health have you? 

5. How often do you have a cold in the nose, throat, 
lungs ? 

Whether a college is physically fit to receive a physically 
fit student is a question which requires surveys of buildings 
and grounds, including private rooming and eating houses 
and places of entertainment that form part of the physical 
college. Apart from obvious sanitary points to be checked, 
experience shows the following dangers prevalent: 

1. Lack of examining physician or nurse or infirmary 
for treatment and isolation, or provision for prompt 
physical health supervision and consultation at rates 
which students can afford, either at the college or 
through cooperative private physicians or town hos- 
pitals. 

2. Inadequate living accommodations which encourage 
or compel congestion. 

3. Traditions which encourage or practically compel stu- 
dents to herd in the immediate vicinity of the college. 

4. Lack of gymnasium, playgrounds, tennis courts, ball 
grounds, hockey grounds, skating pond, inexpensive 
handball courts, etc. 

5. False dietary standards in college dormitories. 

6. Inadequate or inconveniently or improperly cared-for 
toilet facilities, including bathtubs and showers with 



Student Health 203 

freedom of use in rooming houses and gymnasium. 

7. Bad lighting and ventilation due to construction and 
equipment of college buildings and rooming houses. 

8. Unesthetic construction and arrangement of build- 
ings and grounds, which through the eye and nervous 
organization materially affect student health. 

What colleges do to and for the student after receiving 
him is to be tested by results and procedure and not merely 
by advertisement. Students find a pleasure in " beating " 
gym rules comparable to that of a moralist v^ho succeeds in 
" beating " a ride on a street car. A parallel idiosyncrasy 
is the medical department's jealousy of its prerogatives. 
Being an infant prodigy, it has a prodigious appetite for 
prestige and procedure; e.g., it is so intoxicated with the 
idea of rest as a substitute for violent exercise that it will 
require a frail girl to get out of bed and walk a mile in order 
to keep her rest hour at the gymnasium, or if not checked 
it will be so unyielding as to its required credits that it will 
accept a schedule of four gymnasium hours a day capped 
by a rest hour. It is indispensable that belief and plan be 
tested by analysis of actual record showing what was done 
to and for students. 

The first important question, perhaps, is whether the 
physical supervision is regarded primarily as only part of 
individual instruction in hygiene, which has the following 
threefold purposes enunciated by the College of the City of 
New York : 

1 . Through inspections to make the college and all its in- 
fluences safe and attractive to the clean, healthy stu- 
dent. 

2. To teach the student how to secure and conserve his 
or her own health. 

3. To lead students in their graduate years to become 
important factors in the advancement of the public's 
health and character. 

The second general question is whether the college itself 
practices in its buildings and classrooms the health habits 



204 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

which it is trying to inculcate in students ; i.e., does it ven- 
tilate classrooms as students are taught to ventilate their 
own sleeping rooms? Are its dormitories, kitchens, and 
toilets models of sanitation? Does it require teachers to 
exemplify the physical fitness and vitalness which it is try- 
ing to secure from students? 

The third general question relates to the position of the 
health department; i.e., has it powers and duties to enforce 
sanitary practices by the institution itself; to require cor- 
rection of unsanitary conditions of buildings; to prescribe 
limits and exemptions for individual students and to raise 
presumptions against excessive registrations or outside 
work by students ? 

The forward steps or " high spots " in health supervision 
by self -surveyors include these : 

1. Pratt Institute takes the position that any student 
who does not have enough regard for health require- 
ments to work for a commendable physical record 
is not entitled to go on with academic work. Many 
colleges give academic credit for prescribed work in 
hygiene, and several inexorably enforce the require- 
ment. 

2. Students are asked when registering to indicate their 
interest in sports; Carnegie Institute of Technology 
lists 12 different sports. 

3. Cumulative records are kept showing the amount of 
absence due to different causes of illness. 

4. Yale and Carnegie Institute are doing special work 
with respect to foot weaknesses, flat foot, weak 
arches, etc. 

5. Pratt Institute has an honor system of physical effi- 
ciency points and proficiency points that include credit 
for regularity of attendance, freedom from colds, 
sufficient sleep, gain in weight, success in gymnastics 
and sport contests, dancing, etc. 

6. Posture is receiving special attention in women's col- 
leges. 

7. The use of tobacco, alcohol, tea, coffee, etc., is sue- 



High Spots in Health Supervision 205 

cess fully discouraged by showing the relation to suc- 
cess in athletics and studies, — yes, by even asking 
students to write out how extensively they use these 
narcotics. 

8. By substituting competitive games for non-competi- 
tive enforced gymnastic exercises colleges have in- 
terested students in the joy of vitality. 

9. Enforced rest represents a desire to individualize 
treatment of great potential value, even if now and 
then ridiculously enforced. 

10. By including in incidental fees a small charge, it be- 
comes possible to give students as a right the privi- 
lege of calling upon a physician for special examina- 
tion, consultation, and help. A visit in time often 
saves nine. 

11. Courses in public hygiene are taught, encouraged, 
and made compulsory. Such courses will probably 
prove to be the chief survival of the war-time laws 
and enthusiasms for universal training. 

12. Military departments are frankly admitting that 
there is less physical benefit from unwilling military 
training than from outdoor sports and gymnasium 
games. 

13. The importance of bathing facilities is recognized by 
installing provisional facilities where elaborate show- 
ers and swimming pools are not yet possible. 

14. Annual reports make the benefits from physical super- 
vision seem so real that alumni or other constituents 
with financial ability are beginning to offer facilities 
for physical training, sometimes too elaborate in the 
form of modernly equipped gymnasiums or combina- 
tion of gymnasium, club, restaurant, Y. M. C. A., etc. 

15. Catalogs and other announcements are beginning to 
enlist the intelligent cooperation of parents and sec- 
ondary school teachers in stressing the importance of 
a sound body for the joy it adds to living and the 
efficiency it adds for study and work. 

16. Carleton College treats athletics as a matter of educa- 



2o6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

tional administration, the same as any other phase of 
college management, and feels that in this way for 
the first time it is becoming possible to democratize 
sports and athletics. 

75. Vocational Guidance and Supervised Study 

If it were not so serious, it would be amusing to find sec- 
ondary and higher education so enthusiastic about voca- 
tional guidance for pupils and students after leaving col- 
lege and so indifferent to vocational guidance of pupils and 
students when in daily contact with instructors. 

It is just as true of college students as of elementary- 
school pupils that — to quote Superintendent C. C. Hughes 
of Sacramento — " It is more important to know how pupils 
study than to know how they recite." It is infinitely more 
important to know how college students, from freshmen 
on to graduate students, study than to know how they listen 
or recite or answer examination questions. Many a fresh- 
man *' of purest ray serene " is dropped simply because he 
does not know how to study and is ignorant of that fact. 
Many a senior, many a professional student, and many a 
Ph.D. candidate has never learned how to study. Miami 
University finds its supervised study for weaker freshmen 
saves the weak and prevents waste of time by the strong. 

Surveyors will learn whether colleges supervise study, ask 
questions about study, test student ability to study, and take 
time, no matter how long, to be sure that every student 
knows how to study. Other tests mentioned here will 
throw light directly and indirectly upon this need. The 
way students take notes and the way they answer formal 
and informal quizzes are indications. Usually it will be 
necessary to question faculty members. Department heads 
may not know that Instructor B does or does not ask which 
if any student has not yet learned how to study, or that one 
or more instructors have not learned how to study or how 
to teach students the art of studying. 

A discussion of this question at faculty conferences can 
but be a help if each member asks himself with respect to 



Vocational Guidance in Classroom 207 

each student in his charge : " Does that student know how 
to study ? What concrete evidence have I seen to prove his 
ability or inability to study in my subject? Am I giving 
him a chance ? " The surveyor will not forget that a stu- 
dent may know how to study mathematics or Latin and be 
quite unable to study political science, psychology, or his- 
tory. 

The first vocational guidance to confront each college in- 
structor should be whether the student knows how to take 
the particular steps involved in carrying his subject. The 
second is whether the college is vocationally guiding the 
student in the selection of his other college subjects. The 
third is whether the college is doing its duty toward the 
student in making subjects which he has properly selected 
for himself give to him and secure from him all that for 
which he takes each subject and his college course. Only 
when these steps have been taken can a college efficiently 
worry about vocational guidance for the student's next step 
after leaving college. 

One or two colleges already have vocational-guidance 
courses. One or two have laboratories with special super- 
visors to help students find their strong and weak points, 
their leanings and talents. Boston University announces 
such courses in its business school. Some colleges have not 
as yet gone farther than to hold vocational conferences or 
to have vocational talks. At the University of Wisconsin 
the dean of women has a series of round tables. At Bryn 
Mawr and several other Eastern colleges more formal con- 
ferences are held, at which persons familiar with different 
vocations discuss with students the kinds of equipment 
needed and the rewards of these vocations. 

Where students are given work that needs to be done 
under pressure of necessity, punctuality, and accuracy, their 
strong and weak points are disclosed to themselves and their 
supervisors, and their vocational guidance is easier. Where 
students have never tried themselves out and have not had 
contact with actual world's work, vocational guidance can 
obviously not amount to much. When confined to talking 



2o8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

to students, it naturally fails to elicit from them personal 
questions and expressions of interest. 

The personality chart shown on page 257 for teachers 
and the questions asked by the Wisconsin Library School 
and Dean Schneider in Record Aids, offer practical first 
steps in vocational guidance; viz., analysis of student per- 
sonality by teacher and guide. This test ought not to be 
postponed until the last month of the senior year. In- 
stead it should be given the first of the freshman year and 
repeatedly thereafter. 

The rewards of different vocations in terms of dollars 
and " durable satisfactions " — of opportunities to grow 
and to serve — should be placed concretely before students, 
again not the last month of their last year but early in 
their first year and repeatedly thereafter. Every school 
adviser, every successful instructor, is engaged in vocational 
guiding. Much of the present concern over vocational 
guidance is only belated effort to compensate a student for 
advisers and instructors who have failed either to under- 
stand him or to help him understand himself. 

A quest for fads in vocational guidance should be made 
by self-surveys. Superficial interest in vocations runs in 
cycles, due largely to the cycles of advertising and self- 
advertising. The dramatic appeals of the social settlement 
and of various kinds of public service and of commerce have 
led many university men and women away from teaching 
for which they were specially equipped. In what college 
that you know are the rewards and opportunities of teach- 
ing or of educational supervision or of public service pre- 
sented to students with facts, zest, and conviction? 

76. Employment Bureau 

** Mr. A. B. C. informs us that he at one time worked 
with you. We shall be indebted if you will kindly 
write us about his ability. Anything you wish treated 
as confidential will be so regarded." 

The above letter written late in 19 16 by the employ- 



College Employment Bureaus 209 

ment bureau of one of the largest Eastern universities 
shows : 

( 1 ) The university wants to help its students realize upon 
the training it has sold to them. 

(2) An employment bureau has been organized. The 
opportunities and calls have been so many, too many 
for individual instructors and officers to handle. 

(3) This bureau invites students to look to it for help 
and employers to look to it for capable men. 

(4) This employment bureau is a competitor with pri- 
vate employment bureaus. 

(5) As a clearing house for men and jobs the university 
pledges the most up-to-date program and procedure in 
fitting men to jobs. 

Whether a particular college has taken each of the above 
steps can quickly be learned. Whether having taken them 
its employment service is efficient requires further analysis. 

The above letter was quoted because it typifies several 
weaknesses of employment bureaus in general and of col- 
lege employment bureaus in particular. When asked what 
particular questions the university would like answered re- 
garding the graduate-applicant, the employment bureau an- 
swered that it had nothing special in mind but just wanted 
to know what I had to say about its graduate. In other 
words, it presented two alternatives : 

1. An unnecessary amount of time and study in order 
to write a helpful letter. 

2. Writing a general, meaningless letter about sterling 
worth and pleasing personality. 

In striking contrast with the foregoing are practices of 
Vassar, Wellesley, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Columbia, 
described in Record Aids in College Management. Vassar's 
bureau records eight personality facts as to each applicant, 
— personality, judgment, initiative, tact, attitude toward 
work, appearance (voice and manner), accuracy, health. 
Columbia provides for 24 alternatives; i.e., four (excellent, 



210 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

good, fair, poor) for each of six elements of fitness, — person- 
ality, physical appearance, judgment (common sense), en- 
ergy (initiative), promise of growth, general fitness. In its 
bureau for placing teachers Wellesley does not ask for a 
general letter of recommendation but for specific informa- 
tion as to quality of instruction; skill in management of 
pupils ; social relations with pupils ; attitude toward superior 
ofificers; general attitude toward the community; manners, 
dress, or any other points which are pertinent. For li- 
brarians and teachers two Wisconsin bureaus have gone even 
further in asking specific questions as to personality and 
performance, as shown on pages 252 and 253 and in Record 
Aids. 

The most serious single handicap of the employment 
bureau is its lack of first-hand information. Testimony 
from employers is really not enough, because employers hesi- 
tate to volunteer information that may make it more difB- 
cult for employees to secure positions. The point of view 
was once expressed as follows by a state committee which 
was considering whether or not to publish certain facts 
which showed how recommendations had been given to an 
unworthy employee: 

An instructor was dismissed for indecency. Well- 
credentialed by the dismissing college, he applied for a 
position at a college for women. Rumors of his dis- 
missal having reached his new president, the latter tele- 
graphed to several college officers begging them to be 
frank about the new instructor's habits. Answers of 
reassurance were written. Within a few weeks the 
new president found it necessary to dismiss the man 
for the very offense which had caused the previous dis- 
missal. The committee decided that charity was more 
important than efficiency or even straightforwardness. 
As the chairman said, " Our state recently had that very 
thing. We had Mr. Blank on our hands. When asked 
about him we gladly told such-and-such city that he 
would be a great acquisition. They could look out for 
themselves, we were relieved of the embarrassment." 



Analysing Student Fitness for Employment 211 

With this feeling so strong even in the business world, it is 
not unnatural for college professors to give students the 
benefit of the doubt so long as this can be done without 
provable misrepresentation. Specific questions which re- 
quire faculty members and others who are given as refer- 
ences for college students to tell how long and in what ways 
they have known the applicant, and which further break 
up each question into its elements so that qualities can be 
described in different degrees, will do much to secure frank- 
ness. A further step will be found necessary; namely, ap- 
plicants to college employment bureaus will be observed at 
work by persons interested more in protecting the employ- 
ment bureau's reputation for straightforwardness and help- 
fulness than in any one student. In other words, tests of 
punctuality, force fulness, agreeableness, executive ability, 
and specific attainments will be made at college, or under col- 
lege observation, as prerequisites to college recommenda- 
tions. 

Even when employment bureaus withhold recommenda- 
tions it will be found advantageous to all students and pat- 
rons to have the utmost possible specifications of experience, 
personality, and proved or presumptive capacity. One ob- 
stacle to employment service is the willingness of college 
officers to accept general reports which deal with totals, ex- 
tremes, and averages and give the impression that the best 
things reported for exceptional cases are typical of service 
rendered to all cases. The total number of applicants is 
obviously a next to meaningless figure. Another meaning- 
less figure is average salary. Miami reports for teachers 
the total number placed at each salary. A mere statement 
of salary increases obtained through a bureau, or of oppor- 
tunities or increments obtained, would help secure business 
and would indicate need for more support or more ef- 
ficiency. 

Among the minimum essentials needed are these : 

I. A single head (with or without governing and ad- 
visory committees) responsible not only for "clear- 



212 Self Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ing " applications for jobs and for men but also for 
finding opportunities for students. 

2. Cooperative relations with commercial employment 
bureaus and employment officers of factories, stores, 
and civil service commissions. 

3. Publicity matter and publicity campaigns v^hich in- 
sure knowledge by all students of the employment 
bureau's ability to serve. 

4. A policy of complete frankness with candidate and 
employer, to include the above-mentioned field tests 
and personality diagnosis. 

5. Vocational guidance instruction with or without 
credit, to include therapeutics as well as diagnosis, as 
through voice clinics, insistence upon operation for 
adenoids, correction of posture defects, etc. 

6. A budget that makes possible the foregoing program, 
or pending success in obtaining such a budget, re- 
peated announcement, in reports and appeals to 
alumni and supporting public, that the college and its 
graduates are handicapped for want of such pro- 
vision. 

7. Provision for making the bureau self-supporting out 
of fees both (a) flat for registering, and (b) con- 
tingent for securing a position, and (c) proportionate 
to the wages or salary of the new position, in cash 
or by notes to be paid out of future earnings — where 
large sums are involved, the bureau to share in the 
unearned increment. 

From existing records or from special studies surveyors 
will wish to secure the following facts : 

1. How many enrolled last year (those applying from 
positions always being separated from those not em- 
ployed when applying) of (a) students in residence, 
(b) graduates, (c) other former students? 

2. How many of each class were referred with and with- 
out recommendation to employers? 

3. How many referred obtained positions? 



Tests of Employment Bureaus 213 

4. How many after registering obtained positions with- 
out the bureau's help? 

5. How many were helped more than once during 
the year, with reasons why they lost positions and 
statement of steps taken to learn these causes? 

6. How many different positions of each kind and of 
each salary rate were obtained directly through the 
bureau, and how many indirectly or without the bu- 
reau's help ? 

7. How many positions wishing students were regis- 
tered ? By how many employers ? How many were 
filled? How many of each kind and rate were not 
filled? 

8. Extent to which alumni have cooperated with bureau 
by taking or recommending students or finding po- 
sitions and employer friends. 

9. A comparison with respect to each of the foregoing 
facts with the preceding year or five years. 

10. Steps taken to learn of openings. 

In placing teachers, colleges are apt to overlook the im- 
portance of the following : 

1. The number placed where they did not teach their 
major subjects or combination of subjects for which 
they were best fitted. 

2. Elements of personality and experience specified on 
page 252 and in Record Aids in College Management. 

3. List of schools that formerly employed students and 
have discontinued relations. 

4. A complete, preferably a graphic, list of schools now 
employing graduates or former students. 

5. Provision for learning of prospective vacancies. 

6. Facts about living conditions in towns seeking stu- 
dents. 

7. Reasons why candidates were rejected. 

A college wishing to install new employment records will 
do well to write to one of the institutions above mentioned. 
In testing records it will be well to look for the following: 



214 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

1. A cumulative, corrected, up-to-date record for each 
candidate, each employer, and each position enrolled. 

2. Classified lists of positions for teachers of subjects 
and combinations of subjects wanted. 

3. A special tag or mark for candidates or positions 
found difficult; i.e., provision for insuring and con- 
tinuing and cumulating memory, so that the office will 
not depend upon any one person's recollection. 

4. A list, preferably a map, showing fields not yet con- 
quered; employers not yet interested; schools where 
positions have not yet been filled. 

5. Helpful current summaries of employment activities, 
including summaries of time and money cost for each 
class of service. 

6. Requirements that original application shall be filled 
out in candidate's own handwriting. 

7. A follow-up plan for persons enrolled, including a 
pledge to report what happens after each reference 
and also any future changes of position. 

8. Stationery in convenient form for applicants and em- 
ployers to use — this means all anticipated alterna- 
tives printed on the slips or cards, to reduce to a mini- 
mum the writing needed. 

9. Printed instructions to applicants as to method of ap- 
proaching employers. It is no uncommon thing for 
college graduates to go to a business house or civic 
agency and ask for employment, without having first 
even ascertained what the nature of the emplo3anent 
is. 

Every city and every state needs a new kind of employ- 
ment bureau which will combine three functions: (a) diag- 
nosis or personality photography; (b) continuation or cor- 
rective instruction so that a candidate instead of merely be- 
ing connected with a job will be fitted for a better job; 
(c) placement work on conditions where unearned incre- 
ment will be shared by placement bureaus via fees propor- 
tionate to positions. 

Why should not college employment bureaus be models 



Alumni a Great Asset 215 

and propagandists for such out-of -college employment serv- 
ice? 

yy. Keeping in Touch with Alumni 

The knowledge which colleges seem to have or to ask 
about their alumni is surprisingly meager, compared with 
higher education's assurance that the world looks to it for 
leaders. There are a few exceptions, and fortunately the 
present tendency is to regard facts about individual alumni 
as assets altogether too important to be neglected. The 
admirable record of college men teaching in the European 
war prison camps will encourage American efforts to trace 
alumni. Yale's booklet to alumni on their endowment fund 
begins: One graduate out of every four is now repre- 
sented in the Alumni fund. 

In the few colleges which have systematically sought to 
keep in touch with alumni and to account for each one, the 
responsibility usually rests with the alumni association 
rather than with college officers. Perhaps that is one rea- 
son why so little is known; i.e., it has been a matter of vol- 
untary attention by alumni officers rather than of continuous 
official attention by administrative officers. 

Directories will answer a few questions for surveyors 
about alumni. For facts about alumni not there reported it 
is necessary to examine college records. The fundamental 
questions are : 

Is each graduate or other former student definitely 
accounted for? Y,.. N.., f,,. 
What efforts have been made and are being made 
to account for every person ever registered? 
What facts are being asked with respect to former 
students ? 

Is this follow-up work intrusted to alumni organiza- 
tions ... or required of the college management . . . ? 
In what concrete ways are the results of follow-up 
used for the benefit of college or alumni ? 

Any college wishing helpful opinion from alumni regard- 



2i6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ing college practices cannot afford to leave untapped the 
opinions of former students who for reasons not yet un- 
derstood have given little or no information regarding them- 
selves or have failed to answer college communications. 
For silence or reticence there is a reason, which reason will 
frequently help the college put its finger on a spot which 
needs administrative attention. 

The questions sent out to former students usually ask for 
too little or too futile information. Blanks often make it 
easier to misrepresent than to represent alumni experience. 
Quite frequently they go to the wastebasket, because they 
chill alumni enthusiasm, — for example, by eternal talk about 
smokers and athletics and teams and yells. An illustration 
*' hot from the platter " is furnished by my alma mater 
through the following notice : 

" There will be an informal gathering of the Eastern 
Alumni Association of the University of Chicago, on Sat- 
urday, November eighteenth, from four until six o'clock, 
at the Women's University Club, io6 East 52d Street, 
New York. Tea, twenty-five cents." 

Several business men in New York and vicinity received 
this card. Whether this informal gathering is to take the 
place of the annual meeting is not stated. Why it is held; 
why on November eighteenth; why at the Women's Uni- 
versity Club, is not stated. Nor is it intimated who is to be 
there ; what if anything will happen except general conver- 
sation; whether there is a reception or introduction com- 
mittee; whether non-members are invited as guests. The 
return postal card contains the name, which like the other 
card, fails to bear a title or any other mark to indicate that 
it is official for the Association rather than personal by one 
member. 

Without waiting for outside surveys colleges can mate- 
rially help themselves and their alumni by conducting 
through faculty officers and alumni officers self -surveys of 
the purpose and content of communications to and about 
alumni : 



Earning A lumni Support 2 1 7 

1. Are appeals for money preceded by brief statements 
of fact? y... N... f... 

2. Is an annual report sent to all alumni and former stu- 
dents? F... AT... f... 

3. Are alumni asked to make suggestions and criticisms ? 
Y N ? 

4. Are dealings with alumni direct to each member . . . 
or indirect through alumni committees . . . ? 

5. Is the alumni organization democratic ... or is it 
honeycombed with the politics of cliques . . . , factions 
. . . , and political parties . . . ? 

6. Are facts in the alumni directory so specific that con- 
tributors feel it is an honor to have facts about them- 
selves reported there? Y , , , N . . . f . . . 

For keeping in touch with alumni, President Hughes of 
Miami recommends an endowment of the Alumni Associa- 
tion. After listing attendance of 12 alumni groups in 11 
cities, the report on alumni interests concludes : " I am more 
and more convinced, by my own experience, and by the dis- 
cussions of the National Association of Alumni Secretaries, 
that carefully directed relations between an institution like 
Miami and its alumni pay very large returns. Such direc- 
tion, however, demands a considerable outlay of time, en- 
ergy, and money. It is not fair to expect such relations at 
Miami to continue for many years without a regular appro- 
priation of some sort, and a reasonable compensation for 
services rendered. Voluntary work of this sort is of neces- 
sity limited work. The safest plan would appear to be the 
setting aside of sufficient endowment, if it could be secured, 
to put our alumni work on a sound permanent basis.'* 



VII 
COURSE OF STUDY 

GENEROUS criticisms in the original manuscript on the 
Course of Study have been given by President D. J. 
Cowling of Carleton College and Professor A. Duncan Yo- 
cum of the University of Pennsylvania. 

President Cowling advises strongly the abandonment of 
the question method in this chapter. Professor Yocum 
writes that the question method here " is an admirable ex- 
pedient, natural and almost inevitable, for the purpose you 
have in mind. To be definite and conclusive you cannot 
have fewer questions ; indeed, I am suggesting two or three 
more." 

When doctors disagree what shall patients do ? 

In this case both positions are stated to raise frankly with 
readers whether in this and other sections it would be more 
helpful to substitute propositions for questions. 

Several suggestions by Professor Yocum have been incor- 
porated without indicating where he strengthened or elab- 
orated the original manuscript. 

To illustrate the advantage of cooperation from first to 
last by those who are to be surveyed, other helps from Pro- 
fessor Yocum's letter are added to the paragraphs that 
prompted them, as per heavy black bracketed sentences end- 
ing A. D. Y., which will be found in this section. These 
additions indicate, too, how this book will look after a 
reader has filled in the blanks for which spaces are left. 

78. The College Catalog 

What college catalogs are was compared with what col- 
lege catalogs ought to be in the eighth report of the Car- 
negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, free 
upon application to 476 Fifth Avenue, New York City. A 
study of these general comparisons with many specific illus- 
trations may disclose opportunities to improve a particular 

college catalog. 

218 



Catalog Description of Courses 219 

The purpose of a college catalog is to win new business 
and to facilitate business already obtained; i.e., to attract 
new patrons and to serve present patrons. Yet the patron is 
the last person apparently aimed at by several college cata- 
logs. Too many college catalogs have been written for other 
colleges rather than for the students who are to use them. 

Once admitting that almost the only purpose of a catalog 
is to help students prospective and actual to find their way 
among college offerings, several other admissions will be 
made, and it becomes worth while surveying each catalog 
and comparing what it does with what it might do. The 
recent reading of a catalog, page by page, from cover to 
cover (by request of a college president), prompted ques- 
tions which included these: 

Is there not too little description of the human reasons for 
[your college], the atmosphere of student life, success 
of alumni, etc. ? 

Since the purpose of the catalog is primarily to enlist or 
keep alive the interest of students and parents, is it not 
a pity to have them thumb over 17 pages before they 
come to what they think they want ? Would not a com- 
promise be possible, beginning general information on 
page 9? 

Is not the section on " Standards " intended rather for 
your own constituency? Can it not be especially 
adapted to your constituency by explaining the relation 
of each statement to student welfare? 

Would not a description of how very much definite help 
is given to men and women via medical supervision, re- 
assure many parents ? 

Is it not true that the total cost given by you does not 
include a number of important items which every stu- 
dent must meet? Why not have some typical student 
budgets ? 

Will you have the descriptive matter for English and 
Public Speaking courses read with respect to its Eng- 
lish? 

Other earmarks of proper catalog making include these: 



220 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

1. Centering responsibility for adequacy of content, for 
editing, and for economy in preparation and distribu- 
tion. 

2. Separate sections for special audiences, so that it will 
not be necessary to send a catalog of 500 or 800 pages 
to answer a question dealt with in one paragraph on 
one page; i.e., different sections (a) for general dis- 
tribution, entrance requirements, etc., wanted by pros- 
pective students; (b) information as to separate 
courses; (c) directory of faculty; (d) directory of 
students. 

[As summer school director I have proved to my- 
self the economy and efficiency of publishing cat- 
alogs in separate sections for special audiences. 
A. D. Y.] 

3. Supplementary bulletins, form letters, or one-page 
cards which experience shows will answer recurrent 
questions. 

4. A composite report from the same type for exchanges, 
libraries, and the limited number of college patrons 
who want all announcements in one volume. 

5. Revision of general information each year in order to 
keep it up to date. 

6. Application to each year's catalog of suggestions re- 
ceived from best catalog making by other colleges. 

7. Revision each year to make sure that statements which 
students did not find clear the preceding year are now 
cleared up. 

8. Summaries of departmental announcements in tabular 
form before each group of courses, so as to show the 
number, titles, credits, of whom required, who is elig- 
ible, and the prerequisites, — as in Minnesota's cata- 
log. This will help the student focus attention upon 
subject matter without being diverted throughout the 
catalog by parenthetical statements about prereq- 
uisites. 

9. Outline of all work offered in each line before giving 
details of courses, plus explanation to aid students in 



Advantages of Courses Described 221 

selecting work with reference to the things that be- 
long together, — and to the use he wishes to make of 
each part of the course and of the course as a whole, 
— as in Illinois' catalog. 

10. More specific information as to ground covered in 
each course. 

11. Utmost use of typographical aids to quick under- 
standing; i.e., differences in size and blackness of type, 
indentation to show organization of sections, lettering, 
numbering. 

12. A cost record which will show costs of producing and 
distributing, by classes of persons reached. 

13. A follow-up system which will show whether the right 
persons are being reached and how far the reaching 
is effective. 

14. A mailing list of preparatory-school libraries, instead 
of sending a catalog to each senior. 

15. Frank recognition of the non-educational reasons why 
students go to college and specific information for 
parents and principals as well as students under each 
of these reasons (see page 192). 

16. A description of the usefulness, first, of group courses, 
and secondly, where possible, of individual subject 
courses. For instance, the Wisconsin catalog gives 
for the chemistry course the fields that require train- 
ing which this course alone can offer, the opportunities 
for men trained in chemistry, and the special need 
for women ** not only in teaching chemistry in high 
schools and colleges but also in analytical, physiolog- 
ical, sanitary, and food chemistry." 

The culture reasons for and relations of different courses 
will seldom be clearly stated in catalogs until economic rea- 
sons and relations are clearly stated. For stating the culture 
value of a subject no catalog will be criticized. 

[The different forms of both cultural and economic train- 
ing should be clearly stated. A. D. Y.] 

The disadvantages which result from catalog deficiencies, 
such as lack of proper grouping, correlating, and systematiz- 



222. Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ing, are not mere paper disadvantages and are not mere mat- 
ters of catalog arrangement. On the contrary, such disad- 
vantages mean immeasurable difficulties in the student's 
mind, — mal-arrangement, lack of correlation, inability to see 
himself in correct relation with the opportunities of his whole 
course. The instructor's mind is also reflected in catalog 
arrangement. Proper grouping and treatment for students' 
consideration first requires that the faculty group its offer- 
ings with reference to purposes served, and that the faculty 
work with regard to groups and relations where now it most 
often works without knowing what programs each instruc- 
tor's work fits or misfits. 

[The fundamental weakness in courses of study is often 
vagueness and bluff — a claim to mental training that is not 
definite enough to be put to the test. There should at least 
be distinction between aims and relationships that seek spe- 
cific and useful vocabulary and mental interconnection and 
habits. A. D. Y.] 

79. Courses of Study 

Like the three Johns of the Autocrat of the Breakfast 
Table, there are three courses of study : 

1. The course in the catalog. 

2. The course in the instructor's mind. 

3. The course that reaches the student. 

Each of these three courses must be studied by surveyors. 
Regarding the courses in catalogs, the college world is 
agreed that the twentieth century permits and approves even 
where it does not require these: 

1. Grouping of related subjects within a course to show 
relations and proper sequence. 

2. Similar grouping of related courses. 

3. Freedom to elect from several alternatives; i.e., sev- 
eral sub-courses to supplement each main course. 

4. Transfer without loss from course to course. 

5. Description of courses, so that the student can under- 




Fitting studies to state needs 



University of California 




Made and installed by students California 

What learning by doing does the catalog mention ? 



Telling Instructors' Backgrounds 223 

stand what the course will contain and the permis- 
sions as well as the requirements. 

6. Description (too infrequent) of the instructor's back- 
ground and foreground, so that student and his ad- 
visers can judge whether the instructor's mind is of 
the kind to see that the course in the catalog reaches 
the student. In many catalogs the divisions are ac- 
cording to the number of years a student has been 
at the college — lower classmen, upper classmen, un- 
dergraduate with graduate or graduate courses, rather 
than according to the purposes or field. 

7. Description of the after-college values — in ability to 
earn and to serve and to enjoy — of all courses and 
subjects. For example, the elements of economics 
and political science are quite as important to students 
of commerce as is a specific subject in accounting, or 
as ability to enjoy literature and use English is valu- 
able to the physician or lawyer. 

Nor are disadvantages which result from the now too fre- 
quent lack of grouping, lack of correlating and systematizing 
for college courses, mere paper disadvantages or mere details 
of catalog arrangement. On the contrary they mean disar- 
rangement in the student's mind and non-arrangement or 
disarrangement in the instructor's mind. For catalogs to 
group the courses for students' consideration will first re- 
quire that the faculty group courses for its own considera- 
tion and will next require that the faculty itself work with 
regard to groups and relations where now it in large part 
must work without knowing what progress each instructor's 
work fits or misfits. 

Anarchy in announcements breeds anarchy in execution. 
Instructor and student alike, when unable to see portions of 
their work in relation to other portions, cannot take a long 
and balanced view of alternative opportunities. From ex- 
perience neither the student nor a single adviser can see the 
course needed for charities and philanthropic services, nor 
for public service nor for trade and industry. For that rea- 
son the University of Chicago groups its courses so that a 



224 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

student led to inquiry about charities ^nd philanthropic serv- 
ice can see the courses needed for each of four different 
services: (a) general charitable and philanthropic work, (b) 
preparation needed for charitable organization, (c) play- 
ground work, (d) social settlement work. Similarly for 
public service he finds the subjects related under three heads : 
(a) preparation for public service, general, (b) public or 
private service in the labor field, (c) labor or investigating 
commerce. 

The final test of a course is what reaches the student. 
This can be learned only by observation of classroom work, 
examination of student papers and field study, frank testi- 
mony of faculty members regarding preparation brought to 
them; e.g., by medical professors as to student's preparation 
in chemistry. 

A few general questions are needed: 

1. Do courses aim to fit students rather than to read well 
when read by competing institutions or by colleagues 
at home; e.g., where college grounds contain tillable 
land, are students of agriculture taught via use of this 
land or are they given the same lecture courses as in 
other colleges where there is no tillable land ? 

2. Are results analyzed to see whether courses need mod- 
ification ? 

3. Is student interest dissipated by breaking up a course 
into too many nominal subjects or titles and by taking 
too many titles at one time ? The Iowa Survey Com- 
mission advises against one and two hour subjects at 
the university, although it also advises against the five- 
hour subjects at the Teachers' College. 

80. Correlation of Subjects 

Team work within the student's mind is quite as important 
as team work within a faculty. Stratification and scatter- 
fication have widely — temporarily — displaced correlation 
as a principle in education. 

Whether present-day specialization represents a good idea 



Need for Coordination by Students 22^ 

gone to seed or a good idea fruitfully employed is but a sec- 
ondary question for the surveyor who must first ascertain 
the nature and extent of specialization and of correlation in 
any college. 

1. Are new courses added because instructors want to 
give them or because there is a new need? 

2. Are new specialties started when instead students 
really need new illustrations in old courses? 

[When I asked one of my old school boys how he 
was enjoying his work (in a certain school) he an- 
swered : " Fine, except that every time one of the 
instructors gets a new idea he starts a new course." 
A. D. Y.] 

3. Whose business is it to see that the student is relating 
his history to his economics; German language to 
German traditions ; mathematics to field uses of math- 
ematics ? 

4. Which members of the faculty attempt to understand 
how their courses fit into the rest of a college pro- 
gram, whether on paper, in method of instruction, or 
in the student's mind ? 

5. Is there need for general synthesizing courses such as 
college presidents used to give and such as the presi- 
dent of Toledo University is now giving in the two 
half-year compulsory courses for freshmen entitled 
Principles of Human Behavior and The University 
and the Value of Education f 

[General synthesizing courses would make stu- 
dents uncomfortably critical of the work o£ special- 
ists who cannot distinguish between scientific and 
educational values. A. D. Y.] 

At the University of Wisconsin the survey found one cele- 
brated coordinator. Professor L. Kahlenberg, whose chem- 
istry lectures were characterized by numerous digressions to 
such subjects as patriotism, hazing, dissipation, women's 
dress. Answers from alumni who were asked the effect of 
these digressions indicated a student demand for coordinat- 



226 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ing courses. As one alumnus put it: "These digressions 
led us to feel that chemistry was more to us than just a 
study for chemistry in a laboratory ; that our whole environ- 
ment was one huge laboratory." Another declared that he 
" got more material and moral benefit out of these digres- 
sions than from all the chemistry he would stuff into me in 
double the time." A third suggested that *' If the professor 
were to announce a special hour for his coordinating discus- 
sions, there would not be a room on the campus big enough 
to hold students who would want to hear him." 

Among possible coordinators the surveyor should look for 
these : 

1. The special coordinator who ^ives his entire time to 
seeing that students connect theory with practice, sub- 
ject with subject. The term comes from Cincinnati's 
cooperative method, which employs a special coordi- 
nator who visits the " co-op " students in the factory 
and again in university classes to see that the factory 
does not exploit him ; that he is applying his theory ; 
and that the college is answering questions prompted 
by his factory practice, etc. 

2. The special coordinating course is given in some col- 
leges via popular lectures with no credit, at which dif- 
ferent specialties are interpreted in terms of general 
human experience. 

3. The question-box course, in which the instructor is 
class or in assembly bases his message upon students' 
questions and suggestions. 

4. The individual seminar course came from Harvard 
and is used in several other colleges for graduate 
work. I was once given a chance to apply it in under- 
graduate work (page 317). Students will frankly 
tell when coordinating is needed, so far as they feel 
the need. 

5. Group courses are dealt with in the section or cata- 
logs (pp. 219 ff.). Whether a student is compelled, 
advised, or helped to take a balanced diet is easily 
learned. Whether the assimilation is balanced and 



Using Industry's Laboratories 227 

coordinated can be told only by observing the student. 
There are many ways of teaching group courses so 
that students will never learn what coordinating 
means. 

6. General survey courses are splendid coordinators — 
for the students who take them. The present tend- 
ency is to increase the number of bird's-eye-view 
courses, not only in languages and literature but in 
social and natural sciences, Bible, etc. Because hear- 
ing or reading is not absorbing, it still remains im- 
portant to apply tests to student assimilation and co- 
ordination. 

7. Instructor personality is, next to work itself, probably 
our best coordinator. Whether instructor personality 
is such that it could if it wished lead the student to 
coordinating a subject with the rest of his interests 
can and should be learned. Whether a personality is 
so used as to correlate is a different question which 
must be asked. Fairness to instructors also requires 
that surveys state whether or not the duties assigned 
to instructors ; the number of student hours for which 
they are held responsible ; the attitude of the faculty 
group toward instruction and research ; the dominant 
method of dealing with students, whether through lec- 
tures, personal conversation, quizzes, etc., make it rea- 
sonably easy for instructors to coordinate for them- 
selves and to require students to coordinate. 

8. Field work that needs to be done can be made the best 
possible coordinator. When a student takes a task of 
his size that must be done on time and correctly, the 
elements in his own personality which are out of pro- 
portion; the questions in his mind which need an- 
swers ; the suggestions and ambition which crave ex- 
pression, all force themselves to his attention and to 
that of the observant instructor. How far and in 
what ways work is used for coordinating every survey 
should ascertain. War practices are teaching the edu- 
cational value of field work. 



228 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

8i. Cooperative or In-and-Out Method 

Although it originated with engineers, the cooperative 
method has now been extended to students of sanitation, sta- 
tistics, commerce, etc. So far as its principle is sound, it is 
applicable to any course within reach of work that needs to 
be done. One of the best places to experiment with it is in 
the college business offices. In-and-Out is a substitute for 
cooperative, because the student is in college one week or one 
fortnight and out of college the next. When out of college 
he is in a shop and another student is out of the shop taking 
his place in college. 

For 150 opportunities the University of Cincinnati re- 
ceives 5000 applications a year. This extraordinary condi- 
tion is due to the fact that when out students receive journey- 
men's wages, to the desire of students " to be in the thick of 
things," and to the growing conviction that college work 
taken in conjunction with work in factories or business will 
be more interesting and more abidingly beneficial than col- 
lege work taken without the necessity for currently applying 
it. 

The term " cooperative " is used because its coiner, Dean 
Herman G. Schneider of the University of Cincinnati, makes 
a great point of the significance to education and to industry 
of employing industry's capital to educational ends. That 
every person in a supervising relation to other persons will 
become a teacher is one of the results expected fro^m the ex- 
tension of the in-and-out method. 

Whether and where a college is employing the coopera- 
tive method can be quickly learned. Whether in its own 
business management, on its own farms, and in the factories, 
stores, and marts of its own town and near-by towns there 
is opportunity for the cooperative method and willingness to 
try it, a survey should learn. Generally it will be wiser to 
begin by surveying some very limited opportunity, one fac- 
tory, one clerical department, the president's office, or col- 
lege auditor's office. 

The two best summaries of experience are in reports by 
the University of Cincinnati's engineering college and New 




o 







More Citizenship Courses Needed 229 

York City's department of education, which is extensively 
experimenting with this method for high-school boys and 
girls. 

82. Citizenship Courses 

The last trench of the defense against criticisms of higher 
education is that colleges are making for higher and nobler 
citizenship. That men and women are turned out who are 
incompetent in this or that branch of learning will be ad- 
mitted, but that competent or incompetent they are a more 
valuable citizenry is steadfastly maintained. Only recently 
have colleges admitted that in addition to all other services 
which they can render courses in citizenship itself are needed. 

Among questions which self -surveys will ask about the 
training for citizenship are these : 

1. What facts are taught regarding duties and powers of 
present-day government of city, county, state, or na- 
tion? 

2. Is it possible for a student to graduate with honors 
without having studied current events ? 

3. Is citizenship taught through general lectures, as- 
sembly talks, debating societies, or formal instruction ? 

4. What formal courses are offered? Are they offered 
by men and women who are familiar with the work- 
ings of the principles they expound? 

5. Are these courses voluntary or compulsory? 

6. At what time in the course do they come ; i.e., must or 
may freshmen take them or do only sophomores, 
juniors, or seniors have the chance or the necessity of 
taking them? 

[Do they definitely serve all such distinct forms 
of control as ideals, vocabulary, means to varied 
mental interconnection, habits, and conditions fav- 
orable to application and transfer? And do they 
supply the varied sorts of material and experience 
essential to each? A. D. Y.] 

7. What observation or practice work is required of stu- 
dents in connection with the citizenship of the college 



230 Self-Siirveys by Colleges and Universities 



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232 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

circle, of the town, or the state ; i.e., what community 
chores do they help do ? 

8. How much money is spent upon teaching citizenship? 

9. What percentage is this of the total instructional bud- 
get? 

10. If no money is spent directly, what amount of energy 
(outside of budget allowances) is given by the faculty 
to teaching citizenship ? 

11. If incorporation of citizenship courses is not immedi- 
ately feasible, should greater use be made of the stu- 
dent debating and literary societies and self-govern- 
ment association, with or without special credit for 
such work ? 

83. Cultural vs. Practical Courses 

The supposedly irreconcilable conflict between cultural 
and practical courses is being reconciled, thanks to the very 
simple and universal human objection to conceding either 
that the highest culture is not practical or that the really 
practical is not also cultural. It must be admitted that thus 
far the exponents of cultural subject instruction find it hard 
to grant that practical subjects are also cultural and that 
teachers of practical courses find it hard to admit that cul- 
tural subjects are practical. Neither set of exponents will 
admit for one minute that there is any lack of either cultural 
or practical in its own subjects. 

The Wisconsin survey tried to secure a line-up of each 
faculty member with respect to each of his courses. Almost 
unanimously instructors stated that cultural and practical 
were the same or were means and end. New life has been 
given to this controversy by three movements: (i) work- 
study-play plan and learning via doing propaganda, in ele- 
mentary and secondary education; (2) the rapid extension 
of professional and vocational two-year and four-year 
courses in colleges, including recognition by many high- 
grade medical and law schools of two years pre-medical and 
pre-law work in college; (3) the iconoclastic propaganda 
undertaken by the General Education Board under conditions 



"CuUurar' vs. ''Practical Courses 233 

that insure unlimited newspaper space for protests against 
the so-called cultural or disserviceable, and extensive maga- 
zine discussions pro and con. By addressing the General 
Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York City, the reader 
may secure without cost Occasional Publications^ which de- 
cry the cultural and appeal for practical, related-to-life 
courses (together with numerous other educational docu- 
ments such as the Maryland School Survey, Gary School 
Survey, Annual Reports of the General Education Board, 
etc.). 

For condensed protest against the position taken by the 
General Education Board and others who decry the cul- 
tural courses the reader is referred to an article in the 
Atlantic Monthly, November, 1916, by Alfred E. Stearns 
of Phillips-Andover, which it is hoped the General Educa- 
tion Board will have reprinted with other answers to its 
position for equally wide distribution. 

What the controversy really shows is that the world in- 
side and outside of college wants works, not faith; wants 
results, not arguments, both from cultural and practical sub- 
jects. What President Butler says of Latin and Greek the 
world is beginning to say of every other subject, including 
social sciences and the most practical of practical subjects ; 
viz., that unless " they are to become museum pieces, those 
who teach them must catch and transmit more of the real 
spirit and meaning of the classics than they have been in 
the habit of doing." 

Experience is fast proving that no subject is less cultural 
than a cultural subject badly taught, and no subject is less 
practical than a practical subject badly taught ; that no sub- 
ject is more practical than a cultural subject well taught and 
properly mastered, and no subject more cultural than a prac- 
tical subject well taught and properly mastered. 

Individual colleges will do well to have each instructor 
of each department and central committees of departments 
go through the curriculum step by step and state in writing 

I. Why each course is there. 



234 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

2. With respect to what relations during and after col- 
lege each course aims to be practical. 

3. With respect to what relations during and after col- 
lege each course aims to be cultural. 

4. The definiteness with which cultural and practical aims 
of each course are expressed in the syllabus and kept 
in mind by supervisors. 

[The thing without which all other conditions to 
efficiency are vain. A. D. Y.] 

5. The extent to which the work of each student in each 
class shows that the cultural and practical aims are 
being realized. 

6. The number of failures and of unsatisfactory grades 
in each subject, with evidence to show how far fail- 
ures were due to the cultural or practical aims and 
how far to method of instruction. 

7. A comparison of survival, non-survival, high grades, 
low grades, and failures of cultural, non-utilitarian, 
not-related-to-life courses, with the same facts for 
practical, utilitarian, related-to-life courses. Each in- 
structor has a reason for helping this study. 

8. A comparison of foregrounds and backgrounds of in- 
structors and a similar comparison of outside activi- 
ties of students in different groups, to see how far 
results are due to what the instructor is and has to 
give rather than to the paper aim, paper content, or 
paper method of courses. 

[Instructors must be convinced that other things 
than personality and knowledge of content are es- 
sential to efficiency and that many students require 
impressionistic instruction. A. D. Y.] 

9. A similar comparison of college with college in re- 
spect to survival, scholarship, and failure. By defi- 
nition, medical, law, and agricultural colleges teach 
only practical subjects. Is their holding power supe- 
rior? Are results of their clinics, moot courts, and 
farm labor superior to their results from lecture and 
textbook courses? 



Concrete Tests of Cultural Courses 235 

[This is admirable. It should perhaps bring out 
still more clearly the fact that different methods or 
forms of instruction are effective for different pur- 
poses; e.g., the laboratory work effective for ideals 
and habits and the demonstration work effective for a 
proper centering of information. A. D. Y.] 

10. Grading must be analyzed to see whether mark dif- 
ferences mean different standards by instructors or 
different interest among students. 

11. The college and after-college success according to ac- 
cepted standards of 100 freshmen of cultural or near- 
cultural courses may be compared with the results of 
100 freshmen equally graded in practical or near- 
practical courses. Colleges will make contributions 
to education if wherever possible they make such com- 
parison, not merely of 100 freshmen but of all fresh- 
men during a period of, say, ten years. 

[These studies should be more scientific, through 
the elimination of all other varying factors than the 
one investigated. For example, to infer as Nearing 
does that the relatively high number of successful 
Harvard graduates may indicate the efficiency of a 
general culture is unsafe, because so large a propor- 
tion of Harvard men come from homes giving un- 
usual opportunity for success in after life, quite in- 
dependent of type of education. A social group 
should be compared with itself and Harvard with 
Harvard, with variation in only the courses taken. 
A. D. Y.] 

12. Alumni testimony may be sought via classified ques- 
tions which will help successful alumni review their 
own experiences before, during, and after college, in 
efforts to discover in what ways the cultural and prac- 
tical emphasis of different courses contributed to their 
life work. 

[This sort of test I believe is unsafe. (See clos- 
ing paragraphs of my lecture on " Sanity and Defi- 



236 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

niteness in Education.")] If unsafe for concluding 
this study would be safe as a cue and question fur- 
nisher. 

84. Fitting Courses to Local Needs 

Why, pray, should a college course be fitted to the locality 
where it is given? Perhaps to the majority of college in- 
structors the suggestion seems absurd. How can a sane man 
fit the French Revolution, or calculus, or Cicero, or zoology 
to the local needs of a Southern state university or a New 
England private college? 

Nevertheless, self -surveyors will find this an extremely 
helpful question to ask, because to a degree not yet suspected 
college instructors are doing their utmost to fit their sub- 
ject matter and method of treatment to local needs and ca- 
pacities. Student understanding of sciences is tested by ask- 
ing students to analyze local foods, help build local roads 
and bridges, draw plans for local buildings, write for local 
newspapers, survey local swamps, vivisect local animals, an- 
alyze local flowers, give the historical background for local 
institutions. Every time a locality is used as a laboratory 
instruction is related and fitted to local needs. Using local 
schools for observation and practice work or directed teach- 
ing is fitting instruction to local needs. When law students 
are required to take six months in a law office, agricultural 
students to work six months on a farm, library students to 
work eight weeks in public libraries, medical students to help 
conduct clinics, instruction is being fitted to local needs. 
The digressions mentioned on page 225 are interpreted by 
students as efforts to fit chemistry to local needs. 

Wherever faculties attempt to tmderstand the localities 
which pay their salaries, furnish their students, and employ 
their graduates, and wherever college instructors attempt to 
understand the human minds they are trying to instruct, they 
will consciously and unconsciously employ illustrations and 
require applications which spring from and fit local needs. 
Whether the instructor tries to know his own locality or 
whether he fails to see any difference or be himself any dif- 



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Field training for public service via preparing exhibits 



Does Compulsion Sacrifice Attraction? 22^y 

ferent when before 30 students in North Carolina and when 
before 30 students in North Dakota, is a vital question for 
self -surveyors to answer. 

Universal principles lose no force from being applied and 
illustrated so as to fit local receptivity via local need. 

85. Holding Power of Subjects, Compulsory and Elective 

What courses students register for when free to choose is 
an index to needs and inclinations of students, attractions 
and limitations of courses, and efficiency of instruction, 
which no college can afford to leave unsurveyed. For rea- 
sons similar to those which prompt health departments to 
keep pin maps of cases of transmissible diseases, it behooves 
colleges to keep pin maps of student preferences. 

For a given semester it is easy to put on a schedule dif- 
ferent-colored pins which will indicate 

1. Those who have unqualifiedly elected a class. 

2. Those who have elected that class from among several 
in a compulsory course. 

3. Those compelled to take it because there is nothing 
else to choose; i.e., alternatives that are never given 
or are omitted this term. 

4. Those who are compelled to take it because of future 
prescriptions; i.e., as a prerequisite for a course 
wanted later. 

Why the results of such a survey are what they are will call 
for many other questions. 

One complaint is almost universal; viz., that courses for- 
merly regarded as indispensable to training and culture are 
now avoided by students unless compulsory requirements 
prevent free choice. Somehow or other compulsion has 
failed to increase the drawing power or holding power of 
these subjects. This might not be serious if students meekly 
accepted regulations and took what was offered them. In- 
stead they are leaving colleges which prescribe certain 
courses and going to other colleges where prescriptions are 
fewer or nil, or at least where prescriptions themselves seem 



238 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

to fit the program which the student has selected for him- 
self. 

Recent actions by two faculties accentuate the need for 
nation-wide surveys of compulsory courses. Wisconsin's 
faculty has adopted a course that does not require foreign 
languages. Columbia has done away with all degrees but 
the B.A. and has taken the position that whatever credits are 
offered by a student entitle him " fairly to the possession of 
that degree which has historically stood for a liberal train- 
ing "if they have been " serious, well-organized, coherent, 
and catholic." What Columbia is strong enough to volun- 
teer every college in this country will be compelled to debate 
and to consider on the basis of local fact rather than tra- 
dition. 

If the contentions which have heretofore bolstered certain 
subjects with compulsion are sound, there are countable, de- 
scribable, local evidences. If no local reasons exist, perhaps 
a survey will show that there are local reasons either for 
setting up an entirely new list of compulsory subjects or for 
abandoning all compulsions except one; viz., that every stu- 
dent shall select courses which fit one another and fit him. 

[As our study of education values becomes more determin- 
ing, it is only selected parts of subjects that will be " com- 
pulsory ": (i) Essential needs and methods both specific- 
ally and generally useful — often contributed with equal 
efficiency and economy by selected parts of otherwise widely 
different subjects. (2) Those parts that have unique value 
either in the sense of specific usefulness not realizable 
through other subjects or in their high relative efficiency or 
economy in the development of something that other sub- 
jects or parts of subjects cannot do so well. A. D. Y.] 

" Unless Greek and Latin are to become museum pieces, 
those who teach them must catch and transmit more of the 
real spirit and meaning of the classics than they have been in 
the habit of doing." These words are President Butler's. 
They suggest a number of questions for surveyors : 

I. Is the spirit put into work by instructors who have 
compulsory subjects noticeably different from that 



Competition Is the Life of Culture 239 

shown by instructors who have only elective work? 

2. Is there a noticeable difference in the spirit of the 
same instructors when teaching compulsory subjects 
and when teaching elective subjects? 

3. How many students now registered were compelled to 
take each of the alternative compulsory courses ? 

4. How many students have registered for advance elec- 
tives in subjects in which they earlier took compulsory 
courses ? 

5. Do similar facts for courses entirely elective indicate 
any difference in the holding power of elective over 
complete or partial compulsion ? 

6. Is the student's interest in the courses which he had 
in mind when he took the prerequisite elementary 
courses noticeably different from the interest he took 
in the prerequisite ? 

7. Is German or French better taught than Greek or 
Latin ? 

8. What subjects are students electing in largest num- 
bers? 

9. What evidence is there that they are electing subjects 
rather than instructors ? 

10. What evidence is there that changes in popularity of 
subjects are due to changes in social and industrial 
conditions or to changes in the number of trained 
teachers sent out to preparatory schools by colleges ? 

11. What subjects are being taught for no other assigned 
reason except that they are part of traditional learn- 
ing? 

12. How far is pressure to retain or to expand compulsory 
subjects due to faculty members now teaching these 
subjects? 

Another set of questions relates to what actually happens 
in courses compulsorily taken. The trend of opinion might 
have been different as to " taking " Latin or " being ex- 
posed " to German had men acquired facility to feel, think, 
speak, or write in those languages. If all students of com- 
pulsory subjects obtained A-plus by both class grading and 



240 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

world grading, fewer questions would be raised. It is nat- 
ural that questions are raised as to the value of courses com- 
pulsorily taken from which students secure failure, D or C, 
with little or nothing in memory or power to compensate for 
time spent and other studies missed. 

Many friends of the classics, foreign languages, and other 
compulsory subjects, including English, mathematics, and 
Bible study, believe that these subjects would benefit from 
free competition; that they need no compulsion; and that 
more students will elect them and benefit from them if no 
students are required to take them, and if instructors are 
required to adapt them to present-day needs rather than to 
former practices. Specific testimony from a number of col- 
leges would help test this belief. 

Every subject will benefit from taking count of stock and 
testing its own holding power; i.e., by comparing the num- 
ber taking each course with the number whose preparation 
makes them eligible to elect it. 

86. Graduate Work Offered 

Since academic preferment and the giving of graduate 
courses are more and more closely associated in the academic 
mind, it is not surprising that instructors want as quickly 
as possible to have their names opposite graduate courses. 
It helps to have one's name in the catalog as giving a grad- 
uate course. Who away from college or out of one's depart- 
ment will ask whether the course is given and how many take 
it, with what satisfaction? It is useless to advise that every 
college refuse to print offers of graduate work when it is 
either unable to give such work or is certain that no one 
will ask for it. An offer for which there is no taker may 
be just as sincere as the offer for which there are too many 
takers. Who knows but that next time one or several stu- 
dents will apply! Once having a demand, there is an ap- 
pealing power which will justify renewing the offer and will 
strengthen an appeal for funds to make it possible to give 
the work. 

x\fter feeling sympathy for offers of graduate work where 



Mis-advertising Graduate Work 241 

the wish is father to the thought, it still remains advisable 
for self -surveyors to look for evidences that their college is 
doing itself and graduate students injury 

1. By advertising courses when it knows that it cannot 
give them, that the advertised instructor will not be 
present, or is already overloaded. 

2. By advertising initial courses which it can give with- 
out making it clear that it is unable to follow up those 
courses with other graduate courses. 

3. By encouraging students to register for graduate work 
when they must fill out their time with undergraduate 
courses or by undesired graduate courses or by thresh- 
ing over old straw, either in courses repeated or in sub- 
stantial repetitions under different names. 

4. By offering as graduate work courses which are not 
advance work but elementary work, and so recog- 
nized avowedly or tacitly by admitting elementary stu- 
dents to them. 

5. By attempting to develop graduate work equally in all 
departments in the face of unequal ability to give the 
courses. 

6. By failing in advertisement and practice to make it 
clear that graduate work is offered to each student 
conditionally; i.e., only in case that he proves ability 
to do work of graduate — i.e., advanced — grade. 

87. Professional Courses 

Extensive studies have been made of four professional 
courses — medicine, engineering, law, and agriculture — by 
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 
and may be obtained upon application to 476 Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. These studies were partially cooperative ; 
i.e., questionnaires were sent to colleges with respect to 
equipment, requirements, organization, etc. For law and en- 
gineering, college committees assisted. Any self -survey of 
professional courses would well begin with a study of the 
questionnaire and the reports of these special studies. Prob- 



242 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

ably in 19 17 the Carnegie Foundation will also report upon 
normal-school work in Missouri and Indiana, for which pro- 
fessional field the results of study of eight normal schools in 
Wisconsin together with suggestions for self -study have been 
summarized in Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools 
(Allen and Pearse). 

The Carnegie Foundation studies thus far published have 
had to do with questions of policy, organization, and equip- 
ment rather than with the execution of a program and equip- 
ment which any college actually possesses. The medical 
study, for example, which was far reaching in its results was 
made without observing medical instruction, and in a large 
part without testing statements of colleges for accuracy, 
completeness, or over-completeness. 

Once having established a professional course, self-survey 
steps here suggested in detail for various phases of college 
management need to be taken. The principles of scientific 
analysis and description are just the same whether one is sur- 
veying a medical school or freshman work in cultural sub- 
jects. Special stress is needed upon the following points : 

1. Adequate equipment and organization do not mean 
adequate instruction and training in professional 
courses any more than in undergraduate courses. 
Therefore any survey which stops with equipment and 
organization may easily reach unsound conclusions. 

2. The fact that three great donors to professional train- 
ing — Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
Teaching, General Education Board, and Rockefeller 
Foundation — have influence in proportion to the need 
and cupidity of professional schools makes it urgent 
that the country shall take double precautions before 
accepting without analysis the findings of fact and of 
recommendation which emanate from these hoped-for 
donors. 

3. Opposition by donors to physical separation of so- 
called theoretical — i.e., classroom and laboratory — 
instruction from so-called clinical or field instruction 
in professional courses should be subordinated to the 



Professional Courses Need Surveys 243 

needs and possibilities of each professional school, its 
students, and its supporting locality. 

4. The cooperative plan of using the laboratories of in- 
dustry and schools (page 228) is not more needed but 
is more obviously needed in professional courses. 
Surprisingly little scientific study has been made by 
colleges of the few efforts thus far made to apply this 
cooperative principle. 

5. Methods of ehmination need special study; elimina- 
tion from applicants of all w^ho do not present strong 
presumptive evidence of personality and capacities re- 
quired in the profession; elimination early in the 
freshman course; fair — i.e., ruthless — elimination 
in later years up to the day of graduation, even though 
such elimination carries with it an indictment of the 
school's failure to have discovered earlier a student's 
unfitness. 

[Elimination of students who fall below standard is 
essential in professional courses but unprofitable in 
general training which aims to promote democracy 
by raising the general intellectual level. A. D. Y.] 

6. The nature and extent of efforts to analyze causes of 
failure and weaknesses of those eliminated and of 
those who remain needs the same jkind of study which 
is suggested for non-professional courses. 

7. Whether minimum essentials and standard tests are 
currently applied to instructor, instruction, and in- 
structee should be shown. 

8. How far slovenly professional ethics or practice is en- 
couraged by conduct of quizzes, by examination ques- 
tions, and by grading needs intensive surveying. An 
experience as proctor of several medical examinations 
made me shudder for years at the thought of accept- 
ing medical advice. I cannot now see a prescription 
without remembering a senior who graduated in spite 
of answers that included one of which he later 
ejaculated : " My God, I gave that baby enough to 
kill an elephant." There are certain minimum as- 



244 Self Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

sentials of every profession with respect to which the 
passing mark is obviously lOO and not 70. 
9. How professional schools keep in touch with their 
alumni and whether they study and emphasize unclas- 
sified averages, brilliant exceptions, or the specific 
facts as to each graduate's progress need study. 

10. Continuation instruction including field examination, 
in absentia questions and advice will come to be min- 
imum essentials. Normal-school leaders, for ex- 
ample, are urging that in fairness to their product and 
to their client, the public, normal-school supervision 
should continue through six months or a year or per- 
haps longer of actual classroom teaching or school 
management. 

[You cannot emphasize too much the responsi- 
bility that any institution giving professional train- 
ing assumes for the continued efficiency of its gradu- 
ates. Should there not be a legal requirement for 
periodic renewals of certificates entitling graduates 
to practice which should not be given without the 
approval of the institution from which they graduate 
or one of equal rank? A. D. Y.] 

11. How the rewards, requirements, and difficulties of 
each profession are described in announcements and 
catalogs and in courses is a subject for surveyors. 

12. Whether professional training is regarded as part of 
universal training for citizenry and for service is of 
first importance. The world has made up its mind 
that it can do without professional ability, however 
eminent, which fails to consider the public as its prin- 
cipal client against whose interest it is never free to 
accept a retainer of money or preferment. (See ad- 
dress of President Elihu Root of the American Bar 
Association, annual meeting, 1916.) 

88. The College Library 

In his report for 19 16 President Butler suggests that col- 
lege libraries exist not for themselves or for any direct rela- 



Library Efficiency Tests 245 

tion to students but to facilitate the work of college depart- 
ments. He further suggests that students might profitably 
be given courses in the use of libraries, — as is done by many 
small colleges. These suggestions prompt questions for 
surveyors : 

1. Who determines what books shall go into the college 
library and on what conditions books may go out; 
i.e., how far are these decisions matters of initiative 
by faculty, of conference between librarian and fac- 
ulty, or of decision by the librarian alone? 

2. What determines the amount of money available to 
the library? Of the total how much goes for current 
journals? How much to new books? How much 
for postage in order to secure matter for free distri- 
bution? How much for research sources? Are li- 
brary appropriations budgeted? Are fines enforced? 

3. What proportion of the total library expenditure is 
for instructional purposes and what proportion for 
faculty or graduate research ? 

4. What steps does the library take to call attention of 
faculties to live matter and helpful suggestions which 
come in current journals or in library reviews? 

5. Is it permitted to clip out of magazines for topical 
filing any matter considered helpful by instructors? 

[Owing to the necessity for permanent and un- 
mutilated files of periodicals, shouldn't your ques- 
tion take the following form: " Are extra copies of 
periodicals provided from which clippings may be 
made?" A. D. Y.] 

6. What rules govern use of books and magazines by 
students ? Do they encourage library patronage ? Is 
service prompt? Is it agreeable? Is it competent? 
Is it happy? Is it interested? 

7. Is it easy to have books come to places where students 
and faculty gather or must students and faculty go to 
a central place where books are stored? 

8. In what ways is the librarian notified of respective 
demands for books by different courses ? 



246 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

9. In what ways are librarian and staff enlisted in help- 
ing students learn how to study, how to use reference 
works, and how to digest materials ? 

10. What complaints or suggestions have the faculty with 
respect to the central library and departmental li- 
braries? How complete is the file of official reports 
for the city and state where the college is located ; for 
colleges, particularly those of similar size and pro- 
gram; for learned societies, educational and profes- 
sional conventions ; for civic agencies ; for the United 
States Bureau of Education and other departments, 
etc. ; i.e., is it recognized that books are a decade or 
generation behind current reports? 

11. Does the library equipment make efficiency easy? 
Are there enough bulletin boards? Are they con- 
veniently placed? Are they used? Is the lighting 
adequate? May students go to the shelves? Are 
documents most used that are nearest? 

89. Testing Efficiency of Individual Courses 

Self -surveying of colleges and universities presumes self- 
surveying of instruction in each subject taught. Unless gen- 
eralizations and averages are to suffice, it is necessary to 
work out methods of testing the purpose, content, and in- 
structional method of each course. If a subject is taught 
only because it paves the way for a succeeding subject, that 
fact will appear. If a subject is expected to pay-as-it-goes, 
that fact will appear, with reasons. 

Ultimately college experience, conferences of instructors, 
results of self-surveys will make it possible to list for college 
subjects standard tests such as may now be listed for ele- 
. mentary arithmetic, writing, composition, etc. Such a list- 
ing would not be possible as a mere expression of some one 
educator's opinion and experience. It is suggested that col- 
lege faculties, departments, and individual instructors ask 
the following questions about each term course : 

I. What part of it is here because students need it ; what 
part because instructors wish to teach it ? 



Why New Courses Are Given 247 

2. Is its length determined by its subject matter or by the 
length of term? 

3. Who suggested that it be given ? 

4. What college officers passed upon its plan before it 
was incorporated? 

[Does it announce and actually develop definite 
forms of general training and special social ends, — 
under such heads as ideals and incentives, vocabu- 
lary, associations essential to varied mental inter- 
connections, habits and systems of habits, and gen- 
eral application or transfer with the conditions 
favorable to it? The mere enumeration of such 
definite claims for a course would go far toward 
insuring them- A. D. Y.] 

5. Have minimum essentials for it been listed? 

6. In what ways is it specially fitted to its students ? 

7. In what ways does it use students' experience ? 

8. In what ways is it fitted to the locality's needs ? 

90. Admission Requirements 

Standardization of admission requirements has made great 
headway, due largely to the requirements of the Carnegie 
Foundation. Few colleges now admit students to collegiate 
standing who do not present 14 to 15 *' standard units " of 
preparatory credits. 

The gap between nominal requirements and actual prac- 
tice will be found considerable in most colleges. Moreover, 
the minimum line, 14 to 15 " standard units," has been found 
an inadequate protection against unprepared students. Rec- 
ord Aids in College Management exhibits best practices. 

Exceptions to the rule can be easily listed at the beginning 
of a self -survey. For each person admitted with fewer than 
the advertised standard, the reasons for the exception should 
be stated, and the results of it; i.e., whether he or she was 
able to carry the work satisfactorily and whether his or her 
presence subtracted from the efficiency of other students 
and faculty. [In some cases, because " three hours a week 
for thirty weeks in a year" aren't tour hours for forty 



248 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

weeks, they are given no credit whatever. Therefore the 
following : ** Is partial credit given for a three-hour and 
thirty-week course that ought to have been a four-hour and 
forty- week one? " A. D. Y.] 

Because possession of standard credits has not meant pos- 
session of health, character, ability, and desire to profit from 
collegiate work, colleges are making two significant depar- 
tures: they are requiring specific evidence of character, 
health, and ability to do college work ; they are accepting stu- 
dents who present evidence of ability to do work satisfac- 
torily even if they lack standard credits. In other words, 
colleges are swinging back to their original idea that person- 
ality preparation, not academic preparation, is the valid test. 

Blanket certificates in vague general terms are giving way 
to specifications of work done and of personality. It is not 
enough to know credits earned. Colleges want to know the 
amount of ground covered, the number of weeks studied, 
and the number of recitation periods a week. Where this 
degree of specification is not required, three hours a week, 
thirty weeks in a year are credited equally with five hours 
a week, forty wee'ks in a year. The ground covered serves 
as a check against crediting time spent irrespective of benefits 
received. Finally, the student's rating is found important 
as a leverage for a preparatory school and as a qualification 
for college, because many colleges are frankly stating that 
they do not wish to bother with students who were satisfied 
during preparatory days with mediocre, poor work. 

Every college will do well to compare at once the ques- 
tions it asks about students applying for admission with the 
questions asked by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vassar, Smith, 
Mount Holyoke, and Wellesley, all of which require three 
kinds of evidence : 

1. A school report covering the entire record of subjects 
and grades for four years. 

2. A specific character survey (detailed in Record Aids). 

3. Four comprehensive written examinations. 

Columbia threatens to go further; other schools will dare 



Admission Requirements Improve 249 

follow now that they are less dependent upon the Carnegie 
Foundation. The dean of its faculty of political science 
and pure science declares that limiting admissions to persons 
who seek degrees and who present evidence of having com- 
plied with the standard unit conventions cripples a university 
because it restricts the freedom of both student and teacher 
and holds it back from an opportunity ; i.e., " the great busi- 
ness of public instruction and of directly shaping public 
opinion.'' Dean Woodbridge recommends that admission be 
granted " on the most liberal conditions possible and in ac- 
cord with the public demand upon the university.'* 

When Columbia turns heretic, it is safe for smaller col- 
leges to abandon money-made or tradition-made standards 
for entrance requirements and to adopt vision-made stand- 
ards that will accept personality and alDility preparedness no 
matter what academic preparation may have been. Before 
changing their standards with or without precedent and 
moral support, colleges and institutions should " play safe " ; 
i.e., analyze their own local experience, and outline and en- 
force a higher specific standard of personality preparedness. 

President Burton's report for Smith College 1915-1916 
contains (pages 25 to 39) an illuminating discussion of the 
new admission requirements agreed upon by Mount Holyoke, 
Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. The following nine reasons 
for adopting a new plan are elaborated : 

1. To eliminate the evils of the certificate system — for 
the sake of the schools, the students, and the colleges. 

2. To provide a method which would admit any student 
who was prepared to do college work and which would 
exclude the others. 

3. To put emphasis where it belongs and to have entrance 
to college determined not by success in passing ex- 
aminations, not by skill in securing certificates, but by 
giving evidence of ability to do college work. 

4. To affirm the belief that " conditions " for freshmen 
are an unmitigated evil. 

5. To leave secondary schools entirely free to arrange 



250 Self -Surveys hy Colleges and Universities 

their curricula and follow whatever sequence in stud- 
ies may seem to them wise. 

6. To recognize the value and convenience both to schools 
and colleges of a uniform method of admission. 

7. To learn what only the four comprehensive examina- 
tions can show; i.e., in English or history, in a for- 
eign language, in mathematics, chemistry, or physics, 
in groups selected by the applicant. 

8. To take the next step in the solution of the far more 
difficult and perplexing question of the content of en- 
trance requirements. 

9. To let the person who is most concerned, the person 
for whom schools and colleges actually exist, have a 
genuine opportunity to express herself at her best and 
to submit the evidence which she considers does her 
the fullest justice. 

For Notes or Questions by the Reader 



p 



VIII 
INSTRUCTIONAL EFFICIENCY 

91. Method of Selecting Instructors 

RESENT instruction will not be materially benefited by 
asking how present instructors were selected. The 
quality of future instruction, however, may be appreciably 
raised by learning, analyzing, and reporting steps taken and 
standards used when selecting the most recent additions to 
the faculty. 

1. What steps were taken to learn about a large number 
of persons specially fitted for each position? 

2. How many colleagues in other institutions were noti- 
fied? How many public-school, private-school, or 
normal-school teachers, qualified as to scholarship and 
teaching efficiency, were notified? 

3. How specifically were the duties and opportunities of 
the new position advertised ? 

4. How specifically were the qualifications of person- 
ality, scholarship, and teaching defined and applied 
when considering candidates ? 

5. How specifically was a premium placed upon research 
reputation or promise? Yale unblushingly reports 
that " nothing is considered more important than ef- 
fective and inspiring teaching." 

In too many instances mere propinquity determines the 
selection of college instructors — as of wives and husbands. 
Professor A has a liking for Mr. B^ who has tried hard in 
his courses, or gives promise of research ability. The po- 
sition opens ; Mr. B is there, he is likable. Without analyz- 
ing Mr. B's work and qualities with special reference to 
teaching requirements and without seeking five or twenty 
competitors with whom to measure him. Professor A pro- 
pinqs and Mr. B joins the faculty. 

Estimates of character are employed by Dean Elmer E. 
Jones of Northwestern University's School of Education. 

251 



252 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

The blank permits ten different shades or degrees, with 
remarks as to each of the following 24 character elements, 
originally listed by Dean F. P. Keppel of Columbia Uni- 
versity : 



Physical health 
Mental balance 
Intellect 
Emotions 

Will 

Quickness 
Intensity- 
Breadth 



Energy 
Judgment 
Originality 
Perseverance 

Reasonableness 
Clearness 
Independence 
Cooperativeness 



Unselfishness 
Kindliness 
Cheerfulness 
Refinement 

Integrity 
Courage 
Efficiency 
Leadership 



Record Aids in College Management shows that when 
recommending students as teachers for high schools or as 
employees elsewhere, several colleges take pains to specify 
personality elements which promise success. For example, 
Wellesley asks in reports about 



Quality of instruction 

Skill and management of pupils 

Social relation with pupils 



Attitude toward superior officers 
General attitude toward community 
Manners, dress, etc. 



The University of Wisconsin reports as to five degrees (very 
inferior, inferior, average, superior, very superior) of 18 
different personality qualifications : 



I. 


Personal and phys- 


7. Affability 


14. 


Promptness 




ical fitness 


8. Enthusiasm 


IS- 


Open-mindedness 


2. 


Force of character 


9. Conscientiousness 


16. 


Judgment (com 


3- 


Voice 


10. Originality 




mon sense) 


4. 


Sympathy 


II. Initiative 


17. 


Use of English 


5- 


Tact 


12. Leadership 


18. 


Interest in teach 


6. 


Vivacity 


13. Capacity for work 




ing 



Again, regarding high-school teachers who wish other posi- 
tions, questions are asked such as all colleges will undoubt- 
edly come to ask about candidates for teaching positions on 
college faculties; e.g., as to 



1. Preparation of subject matter 

2. Skill in presentation 

3. Skill in questioning 

4. Ability to hold attention 

5. Quality of results secured 

6. Skill in classroom management 



7. 

8. 


Skill in assignment 

Interest in the life of the com- 


9. 


munity 
Interest in the life of the 




school 


10. 


Moral influence 



specific QuaMcations for Teaching 253 

Two other interesting precautions are taken; viz., refer- 
ences are asked to indicate whether the teacher is best fitted 
for a small high school or a large high school, normal school, 
or a college as supervisor or superintendent; finally, a con- 
fidential statement is requested to " cover any reservation 
which you desire to make." 

Faculties with " sot " habits will seldom welcome a per- 
sonality camera which will analyze their physical appearance, 
voice, manner, etc. Few faculties, however, will fail to 
agree that it is desirable when adding a new person to their 
number to put a premium on voice, physical appearance, and 
reputation which express vigor, health, poise, cooperative 
spirit, etc. The strongest candidates will not suffer from 
having their personality characteristics broken into elements 
and each element into degrees as per the card on page 257, 

A question which the Wisconsin Library School has asked 
of librarians who have supervised practice students, suggests 
this for colleges: Would you employ this candidate for 
work in your own college similar to that of our position 
here? Another helpful question is: How far do you ex- 
pect this candidate to rise in the profession of teaching if 
given opportunity? 

Every question listed on page 270 for testing efficiency of 
classroom instruction can without embarrassment be asked 
about the previous teaching of candidates, especially if the 
would-be employer goes whenever possible, as he should, 
to see the would-be instructor at work with students. The 
habit cannot long survive of college presidents going east 
or west to interview a candidate, not at work with students, 
but at a hotel or club! 

Among the earmarks of inefficient instruction which with- 
out embarrassment can be looked for when comparing can- 
didates not yet on a faculty, are those mentioned and sug- 
gested on page 258. 

92. Observation of Classroom Instruction 

Against survey visiting of college classes it is urged that 
definite tests for instruction of college grades have not been 



254 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

formulated; that if formulated they would result in la- 
mentably one-sided instruction ; that there would be a tend- 
ency to apply the same test to instructors in different de- 
partments; that if efficiency tests were applied to each 
instructor even in one department or subject the result would 
be monotony of influence upon students ; that any test which 
would be satisfactory would be so complex that it would 
require greater discretion in the persons who applied than 
colleges could insure ; that by other methods than class visit- 
ing instruction is already better tested; that visiting would 
check the spontaneity of instructors; that no man under 
surveillance could exert the right influence upon students be- 
cause he could not be himself ; that a visited teacher would 
be more pitiable than a public speaker who is constantly 
followed at every performance as to thought, delivery, and 
personal appeal to the audience ; that a person who knows he 
is being tested will lose the power that comes from absorp- 
tion in his task ; that what his students do when they go on 
to advanced courses shows the instructor's ability ; that class 
visitation means censorship of personality more disastrous, 
because more insidious, than any censorship of doctrine ; that 
only subservient instructors with theatrical ability would 
show what supervisors desire; that straightforward and in- 
dependent instructors would find supervision intolerable ; that 
men of strong personality would leave an institution where 
classroom visiting prevailed; that the tendency would be 
to apply to university teaching and college teaching the 
mechanical tests worked out for elementary and secondary 
teaching; that better teachers will develop even under 
administrative neglect than under administrative nag- 
ging. 

For classroom visiting there is equally emphatic demand. 
President Butler of Columbia says that poor teaching in 
universities is due in large part to the " bad tradition which 
so largely prevents the inspection and supervision of the work 
of young teachers by their elders." Professor Barrett 
Wendell declares that professional standards are higher in 
French universities than in America and that even rectors 



Need for Classroom Visiting 255 

of French universities are *' objects of a supervision as close 
as that applied to their subordinates of whatever rank." 
This supervision, he says, is obtained '' by reports supple- 
mented by field visits and classroom observations." Many 
college departments, especially in science, have young in- 
structors visited while at work with students in laboratory, 
recitation, lecture, or quiz. Checking instruction by later 
progress of students in other studies outside college is check- 
ing too late at too long range. 

What the catalog, syllabus, instructor, or instructor's suc- 
cessor says about a course will obviously present fewer op- 
portunities to help the instructor than will what the instruc- 
tor and students do while the course is being given. With- 
out more knowledge about work done in classrooms than is 
frequently possessed by departments in colleges there is little 
encouragement to be a first-class teacher. Absence of 
knowledge about classroom ef^ciency means failure to dis- 
tinguish degrees of teaching ability, — great, medium, lit- 
tle. This means that superiority competes with mediocrity 
and inferiority in the dark, with the result that superiority 
is not encouraged. Any college which fails to discover in- 
efBciency will also fail to discover and reward ef^ciency. 
Incidentally any president or dean will be greatly helped in 
understanding his own problems and opportunities if he goes 
to classrooms for the good such visiting will do himself. If 
helpfulness rather than appraisal is the purpose of survey 
or self-survey, the reasons against classroom visiting lose 
force and the reasons for such visiting gain force. 

Whatever may be possible or expedient for an outside 
survey, it is clear that a self -survey will include observations 
of classroom instruction. Colleagues will visit one another. 
Subordinates will visit superiors for inspiration and for 
credit. Older men, out of friendship or when officially dele- 
gated, will visit younger men. Deans will visit to keep 
themselves in touch and to be sure that they are backing the 
right man or not acting from insufficient knowledge when 
proposing dismissal, promotion, or salary increase. Special 
committees will, under instruction from the faculty, visit 



256 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

classes as a means of answering questions which are agreed 
upon in advance as essential to discovering what and how 
instruction is given. Special inquiries will be made to settle 
controversies or to test proposals for changing educational 
methods. Alumni will, with consent of faculty or from out- 
side pressure, visit classes. 

For state-supported institutions the special survey will un- 
doubtedly find it necessary to answer questions about in- 
struction with facts gained by observing instruction. The 
presidents of three Ohio universities visited classes with 
Director H. L. Brittain of the Ohio survey and marked the 
facts observed on the survey card. Five instructors of the 
department of education began visiting with the University 
of Wisconsin survey. 

When classes are observed, shall surveyors report what 
they see or what they think about it? 

Experience in supervising everywhere else answers that 
only when supervisors state the fact base of their judgment 
is their judgment accepted. On the other hand, if surveyors 
state what they see in class it will usually not be necessary 
to say what they think about it. The type of fact to be 
noted uniformly when visiting classes can be worked out and 
agreed upon in advance by surveyor and surveyed. 

Averages and net balances will be avoided. The com- 
mendable will not be balanced against the uncommendable 
in an effort to see which appears oftenest. Averaging ex- 
cellent with deficient is worse than useless, because it mis- 
leads responsible officers and leads to inaction where facts 
standing out by themselves would lead to action. A char- 
acteristic or habit or defect that interferes with instruction 
needs attention, no matter how many other habits make for 
successful instruction. Every weak point will be separately 
listed for the opportunity it presents to be of help and to 
remove obstruction to efficiency. Every strong point will 
be listed as solid ground upon which to build. 

Whether excellences are of personality, subject matter, 
method of presentation, or method of conducting classes is 
an important question of fact, which will be lost sight of 



Personality Chart for College Teachers 257 





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258 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

where questions regarding each of these elements of class- 
room instruction are not analyzed separately. 

If the person visited is shown the report of the visit, one 
of three things will result : ( i ) The instructor will admit 
that the description is accurate; (2) the reporter will accept 
slight modifications because of facts submitted by the in- 
structor; (3) a further visit will be shown necessary by the 
instructor's refusal to admit that the statement of facts is 
substantially correct. Self -surveyors will always have time 
to make a second or third or tenth visit. 

Whenever possible the surveyor should report to the sur- 
veyed, immediately after the visit, what is observed. 
Many successful supervisors make carbon copies of their 
notations and hand or send these to teachers whose classes 
they observe. Where facts clearly show that an instruc- 
tor needs help, the sooner that help is given the better. If 
an instructor agrees to the facts, he will ask questions and 
gladly receive suggestions, oftentimes before the surveyor 
leaves the room. 

The accompanying questions furnish a nucleus. Within 
each subject a separate list of questions is needed. Such lists 
of minimum essentials will be quickly worked out after col- 
leges generally recognize the helpfulness of classroom visi- 
tation, and college instructors will soon have " high spot " 
hand-books of best practices and earmarks of efficiency 
against which to check their own material and method. 

While waiting for surveys by others each instructor may 
profitably examine his own workmanship for earmarks sug- 
gested by the following questions : 

1. Am I heard . . . and understood ... or do I mumble 
. . . , talk like a whirlwind ... or befog . . . ? 

2. Do I speak and require correct English . . ., inde- 
pendent thinking . . . , and straight reasoning . . . ? 

3. Are my lectures, illustrations, questions, and labora- 
tory demonstrations up-to-date, leavened with current 
events ... or " cold mutton gravy " . . . ? 

4. Do I prepare myself adequately for meeting students? 
Y N 



^5 Tests of Teaching 259 

5. Is my plan well organized ... or do I *' ram-ble, ram- 
ble, ram-ble round the town " . . . ? 

6. Do I make technical terms clear ... or revel in ob- 
scurity . . . ? 

7. Do I make dogmatic statements ... or support as- 
sertions with facts . . . ? 

8. Do I adapt subject matter to the purpose of my 
course ? Y , . . N . . . 

9. Do I invite questions and discussion by students? 
F... AT... 

10. Do I receive student responses sympathetically? 
F. . . N . . , What is my reputation as a teacher 
among students ? 

1 1 . Do I address a question first to the whole class . . . 
or only to the particular student ... I want to an- 
swer it ? Do I habitually . . . and needlessly . . . 
repeat student answers ? 

12. Does my questioning lead to adequate responses ... or 
to monosyllables . . . ? 

13. Do I fail to make instruction concrete; i.e., do I apply 
and have applied . . ., or just talk about . . ., the 
Courtis tests? 

14. Do I require preparation by students . . . ? Or 
am I their slavey preparing predigested food for 
them . . . ? Am I a high ... or low . . . marker ? 
Am I considered thorough and exacting? F. . . 

15. Do I hold attention when talking and questioning 
F. . . iV. . . ? How many of each class go wool- 
gathering or give apparently forced attention ? 

16. Do I use class time fully and profitably? F. . , 

17. Do I teach foreign languages via use; i.e., via speak- 
ing them and requiring students to use them? F. . . 

18. Do I quiz ... or lecture ... or just talk ... in quiz 
time? 

19. Do I know my students by name? F. . . N . , . 



26o Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

20. Do I know enough about each student to tell whether 
he is benefiting from my course ? Y.., N..» 

21. Is my specialization or research reflected in my in- 
struction? F. . . iV... 

22. Do I subordinate the first personal pronoun ... or 
do I explain Browning in terms of my own writing 
. . . ? 

23. Do I capitalize the student's experience; i.e., hitch 
or try to hitch my star to his wagon ? Y . . . 
N.,. 

24. Do I exclude irrelevant material and subjects from 
my own or students' discussions . . . ? Or do I re- 
quire disserviceable and wasteful reading and note 
taking like the " busy work " given to elementary 
pupils . . . ? 

25. What specific evidences are there that students are 
assimilating what I give, using independently what I 
do, growing as the result of my work with them, do- 
ing their own thinking? 

To the foregoing list every college faculty and every de- 
partment will want to add several other questions. Each 
instructor will find that each question asked about himself 
prompts several other questions. 

The present generation of college instructors need have 
no fear that self -analysis will breed morbid self -conscious- 
ness. 

If in a particular college public sentiment has not yet 
called for a survey of instruction, the faculty may at least 
welcome a list such as the above for self -survey in each 
instructor's sanctum sanctorum. 

Commenting upon the foregoing section. Dean E. E. Jones 
of Northwestern wrote the following: 

" Nothing would be more profitable to university instruction 
than a score card of instruction which would be at least as accu- 
rate as the score cards used by schools of agriculture for meas- 
uring steers or hogs." 

To illustrate the disadvantages of a score card which 



Helping, not Scoring 261 

gives numerical values rather than degrees, we reproduced 
in Self 'Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools (pp. 84-86) 
the codification for teacher's efficiency formerly used by the 
Connecticut state board of education. Similar score cards 
have been tried elsewhere. Connecticut abandoned the nu- 
merical rating because Secretary Charles D. Hine found that 
supervisors and teachers alike were more concerned about: 
the final total than they were about the specific weaknesses 
disclosed by the scoring. 

Scoring products — steers and hogs or bread and pump- 
kins — is scientific because the motive is to decide which is 
superior from the standpoint of the dollar market. Scoring 
methods cannot be scientific wherever it forgets that the 
purpose of scoring is not to discover superiority or relative 
ranking of several teachers but to discover specifically where, 
if at all, each teacher can be helped by herself and by her 
supervisors to improve her product via improvement in her 
method. That is the reason why throughout this book effort 
has been made to warn administrators against numerical 
rating of processes and persons. 

In addition to the elements of instruction above specified, 
the self-surveyor will do well to note the following facts 
with respect to college instruction. The first day of the 
semester is included to bring out the manner of introduc- 
ing courses and instructors to students. 

1. Class opened Dismissed teacher tardy — yes. .. .no. .. . 

2. Were students in class who had not registered? Yes.. (How 
many....) No.... What notice was taken of unregistered stu- 
dents 

3. Did the semester's work actually start — ■ yes no 

4. Teacher's description of course — Whole course — yes.... no 

beginning yes no clear — yes. ...no. .. .inspirational — 

yes. .. .no. . . . 

5. Time spent in opening instrc'ns Clear — yes. . .no. . .necess'y — 

yes. . . .no. . . . 

6. Could opening instructions have been given more economically — 
yes. .. .no. .. .How 

7. Time spent in repetition of previous instructions — none.... min- 
utes 

8. Would absent student be handicapped next day — yes. . . .no, . . . 

9. Assignment for next lesson — yes. . . .no. . . .definite. . . .indefinite 
too much reasonable too little 



262 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

10. Personal relations with students: Did teacher offer to help — 

yes. . . .no. . . .How many students asked questions during class 

after class 

11. Was yesterday's assignment followed up — yes no adequately 

partially 

12. At what disadvantage were students who were not present yes- 
terday ? 

13. Type of lesson — Written — none.... all part. .. .Lecture — none 

all part Topical — none all part Question 

none few many too many Per cent time used by teacher 

by students 

14. Mood in which ^ students left class — interested careless 

happy worried 

15. Did the class get enough to pay them for the time spent — yes. .. . 
no 

16. Does the size of classroom fit the size of the class — yes. .. .no. .. . 

Vacant seats number standing or uncomfortably 

seated 

93. Supervision of Instruction 

Apart from visiting instructors while they are at work 
with students, there are several other methods of helping 
them do what their college and department expect of them. 

The word *' supervision " has gained an unsavory repu- 
tation, not so much for anything that has happened in col- 
leges as for the conduct of certain supervisors in lower 
schools. On one of the visits which led to High Spots in 
New York Schools I was so impressed with some English 
work, oral and written, that I asked the principal if his dis- 
trict superintendent had seen it and had asked other teachers 
in the district to observe it. The principal took me aside 
so that the teacher would not hear and replied : " Now 
that you ask me I will tell you frankly what happened. The 
district superintendent saw practically what you have seen, 
and then lit into this teacher like a ton of brick because 
several of the pupils' papers had not in the upper right-hand 
corner, underscored, as per order, the writers' names." 

American colleges are afraid that supervision which goes 
beyond informal conferences and friendly talk will degen- 
erate into fault-finding, venting spite, and playing favorites. 
While in theory one's reputation with other instructors for 
whose work students are prepared constitutes a form of 
supervision, in fact few colleges have systematized this test. 



Kinds of Helpful Supervision 26^ 

Among the many ways of helping the young instructor 
while protecting the college against defective planning or 
execution the surveyor should look for those mentioned 
on pages 258 ff. Other methods of supervision include 
these : 

1. The department head goes over first draft of courses 
planned, raises questions, makes suggestions, and re- 
views the final draft. 

2. Where several instructors are giving the same course 
to different sections, they compare notes as to plans 
and as to current results as reflected in examinations, 
term papers, attendance, etc. 

3. Under the departmental system one man is held re- 
sponsible for the course and for ascertaining through 
conferences, tests, examination papers, etc., how his 
co-instructors are carrying out the plan they helped 
him make or for which he is administratively re- 
sponsible. 

4. Where a number of instructors are guiding the read- 
ing and conducting the quizzes for lectures given by 
another instructor, conferences are held and notes 
compared. In a laboratory course the conductor of 
the course will generally inspect laboratory work. 

5. Departmental lunches are held for informal discus- 
sion or review of plans; for correlating different 
courses ; for promoting team work ; for encouraging 
younger men, enveloping them in the spirit of the de- 
partment and drawing them out as to difficulties 
which older men or other younger men have success- 
fully met. 

6. Much is done personally by colleagues to make the 
new instructor feel at home and to take up delicately 
with experienced instructors any difficulties which 
come to the attention of colleagues. 

7. Instructors from different departments having com- 
mon problems meet to discuss them. 

8. Deans learn through advisers and through failures or 



264 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

complaints of students of difficulties that need atten- 
tion. 
9. General faculty meetings consider new methods em- 
ployed elsewhere, as the preceptorial system at Prince- 
ton and Bowdoin or the cooperative system at Cincin- 
nati. 
10. Printed instructions and syllabuses help out-of-class 
supervision and contain points with which to check 
what happens in classes. 

Whether these steps are definite, specific, personal, con- 
tinuous, and cumulative is for surveyors to answer. It is 
not enough to record paper plans for supervision. It is 
supervision that gets to the individual instructor which 
counts, just as it is the instruction which gets to the in- 
dividual student which counts. 

94. Supervision of Classroom Instruction 

An individual who sets out to survey the efficiency of col- 
lege instruction takes his life in his hands. Experience 
proves that it is just as unpleasant to have one's teaching 
investigated by an insider as by an outsider. Since, how- 
ever, colleges exist for instruction, college surveys can 
hardly ignore instruction. Shall they survey the things that 
have to do with instruction or shall they survey instruction 
itself? 

No objection will be urged to asking questions about in- 
struction like these : 

1. What is the course of study? Does the catalog sat- 
isfactorily describe it? 

2. What is the range of teachers' salaries? 

3. What is the reputation of the college for instruction 
as shown by efforts of other colleges to secure in- 
structors and by within-college reputation of indi- 
vidual instructors? 

4. How are instructors selected? 

5. How do departments help younger men and supervise 
their planning and giving of courses? 



Questions or Notes 265 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



266 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

6. What is the reputation of the faculty for scholarship 
as shown by research and books and prestige in sci- 
entific societies? 

7. What is the success in other colleges of our students 
who leave after or before graduation ? 

8. Is the faculty overworked? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

9. Are classes too large ? Y.., AT... f . . . 

10. Do requirements for admission and continuance 
guarantee students able to do the work ? Y, , . 
iV... 

11. Are equipment F. . . iV..., facilities F... N,.,, 
and living conditions F . . . iV . . . , favorable to effi- 
cient instruction? 

Every one of these questions should be answered by special 
surveys and self -surveys, whether or not there is classroom 
observation. Affirmative answers, however, will not mean 
that instruction is efficient or even moderately satisfactory. 
All the surrounding elements may be conducive to the 
highest grade instruction and still students get little or 
nothing from a given course. Whether the thing which the 
students get is to be observed or taken for granted is one 
of the major questions now before American colleges. 

95. The Student Adviser 

Temporarily colleges are conceding that the individual in- 
structor cannot reasonably be expected to know either what 
other work his students are taking or why they limp and 
halt in his work, therefore the official adviser, student ad- 
viser, or class officer who is made a " clearing house " for 
all facts regarding a small group of students. For this 
extra service colleges usually pay nothing in dollars or in 
credit ; the University of Illinois pays $50. 

Among duties of successful advisers are found these: 

I. At registration time: 

I. To interpret regulations and alternatives; to help stu- 
dents elect studies with a view to future courses as 



Helping Advisers Help Students 26y 

well as present interest; to explain how deficiencies 
may be made up or irregularities adjusted. 

2. To prevent ill-advised electives. 

3. To give information and advice as to outside activ- 
ities. 

4. To see that registration blanks are correctly filled 
out. 

5. To give help on purely personal matters, such as how 
to look for rooms; why to attend convocations; 
where to find information. 

6. To get acquainted with new students and help them 
feel at home. 

II. Between registration times: 

1. To hold regular office hours. 

2. To see every advisee within a fortnight. 

3. To review class cards. 

4. To act promptly upon reports from instructors that 
work is unsatisfactory. 

5. To ask instructors what the trouble is. 

6. To get in touch and keep in touch with parents. 

7. To ask the help of parents and high-school principals. 

There is many a slip 'twixt adviser's program and ad- 
viser's practice. Where unsupervised, the adviser system is 
apt to become a mere formality or nuisance to both faculty 
and students. Unless the weakest adviser is provided with 
and instructed to follow the methods employed by the 
strongest adviser, a college will deal quite inequitably with 
its students. Even where deans cannot personally see stu- 
dents, as Dean Keppel finds possible with over 1200 Co- 
lumbia College students, deans can exact from all a pro- 
cedure that will include minimum essentials while still pro- 
viding unlimited differentiation above minimum essentials. 
Several devices and practices are listed in Record Aids in 
College Management which are equally helpful to instructor 
and adviser. 

The self -surveyor will do well to see whether advisers and 



268 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

instructors acting as advisers to their own students are bene- 
fiting from best practices. 

1. May a student change his adviser for good reason? 
Where possible may advisee choose adviser and ad- 
viser choose advisees? 

2. Are advisers fitted to students; i.e., are advisees given 
preferably to advisers vi^ith whom they have class 
work? Is the same adviser continued through two 
lower-class and two upper-class years? 

3. Is the confidential information which is obtained re- 
garding freshmen from preparatory school or par- 
ents made available to and used by advisers at first 
registration time? F. . . iV. . . f,,, 

4. Are advisers given written instructions as to their 
duties ? 

5. What meetings have they before or after registration ? 

6. Are advisers furnished with a codification of ques- 
tions previously raised, with proper answers? 

7. Have the catalogs and announcements anticipated stu- 
dent questions, thus reducing to the minimum ques- 
tions left for advisers to answer ? 

8. How is the way they answer questions observed ? 

9. Is adviser furnished with cards for recording the 
minimum of information regarding each advisee, in- 
cluding substance and results of conferences? 

10. Are teachers furnished blanks with which it is easy 
for them to send important information before it is 
too late to prevent student failure? One college 
sends the following questions to an instructor regard- 
ing a student found weak in his subject : 

a. Do you think student was properly prepared 
for your subject? 

b. Has he attended class regularly? 

c. Has he explained absence from his class ? 

d. Do you know whether or not he has been do- 
ing outside work for his support ? 

e. Do you know whether or not he has been in- 
terested in outside activities? 



12 Criticisms of Adviser System 269 

f. Has he seemed to be interested in your subject? 

g. Has he prepared work assigned to him from 
day to day? 

h. Have his recitations been satisfactory? 
i. Has he failed to pass most of the quizzes ? 
j. Does he lack ability? 
k. Is he a student who should be given a chance to 

continue at the university ? 
1. Have you any suggestions to make concerning 

the student ? 

11. Are parents notified where students excel F. . . iV. . . 
and when students begin to stumble ? Y , , . N . . . 

12. Has the dean a central record which shows who are 
the advisers and who the advisees, thus locating the 
responsibility definitely and promptly? 

13. How much time is given by advisers to students at 
first meeting? Is it enough? Does it vary with dif- 
ferent types of student? F. . . N, , , 

14. How is adviser work supervised and checked; i.e., 
who learns if adviser enforces rules regarding the 
early return of students to him, or how promptly, or 
how effectively the adviser acts upon receiving word 
of advisee's difficulties? 

15. Is the adviser system or adviser principle used in 
summer sessions ? Y. . . N . , . 

16. What step is taken to codify the experience of ad- 
visers so that deficiencies or difficulties of catalog, an- 
nouncement, college discipline, living conditions, in- 
structor dealings with students, etc., may be made 
available to the college management? 

17. Is the net effect of the adviser system an increase . . . 
or a decrease ... in the individual instructor's sense 
of responsibility for knowing what his students have 
to give and do give to his subject ? 

The following criticisms were made by one faculty of its 
adviser system. Do they apply to your college ? 

I. Relations are mechanical where they should be highly 
personal. F. . . AT... f,,. 



270 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 
2 



3 

4 

5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 

II 

12 



There are too many advisees for each adviser. F . . . 

N ^ 

Too many young instructors are used. F. . . N... 

? . . . 

Unsuccessful advisers are required to continue. 

JL««* XV**« •••• 

Advisers are given students who are not in their 

classes. F . . . A^ . . . ? , . , 

Advisers are ignorant of facts necessary to intelligent 

advice. F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

Advisers' offices are too small. Advisees' right to 

privacy is violated. F . . . A/" . . . ? . . , 

Advisers have too much other work. F. . . A^. . . 

f , . . 

Advisers do not meet advisees often enough. F. . . 

A^... .^... 

Too little attention is given to freshmen. F . . . 

AT ? 

Advisers do not try to know enough of aims, grades, 

and activities of advisees. F. . . A^. . . ? . . . 

Good adviser work does not count toward promotion. 

F A/" ^ 



96. How Classroom Instruction Was Photographed by the 
University of Wisconsin Survey 

Effort was made to have university surveyors report re- 
garding the same courses. The following instructions were 
talked over by observers and supervisors before the classes 
were visited. By agreement with the university, classes 
for training teachers were selected for visit, hence the at- 
tention to child background, etc. 

I. Shall quality of instruction be judged by the extent to 
which 

a. The subject matter is academic, theoretical, cul- 
tural — studied for its own sake ? 

b. The recitation concerns itself with an applica- 
tion of principles, theories, facts of child nature 



Classroom Instruction: Analysis 271 

and education to actual school and classroom 
problems ? 

c. The teaching has inspirational value, sets up 
worth-while ideals, and in such a way as to 
create a strong desire in students to want to 
observe child life, and to test and apply prin- 
ciples of education in actual school situations ? 

d. The subject matter considered and the method 
of treatment illuminate and explain sources and 
causes, showing the influence of the past on 
the present, making possible an intelligent com- 
prehension of present-day educational move- 
ments and problems ? 

e. The conduct of the recitation stimulates pupils, 
arouses interest, awakens emotions and respon- 
sive attitudes, utilizes past experience of stu- 
dents, results in worth-while questions, or 
whether the teaching is formal, mechanical, 
lifeless, largely reproduction of words and 
terms which seem to have little if any content 
in students' minds ? 

f. The teaching is worthy of emulation by stu- 
dents in their future work as teachers in the 
public schools ? 

g. The recitation makes good use of the time — 
arrives; is fairly complete, leaving certain 
clear, definite impressions as opposed to leav- 
ing questions " up in the air," vague, indefinite, 
and unclear ? Does the recitation " kill time " ? 

h. The conduct of the recitation makes necessary 
careful, painstaking preparation by students? 
Does the teacher do the reciting, leaving pu- 
pils passive, indifferent, bored? 

Note I. Every conclusion or judgment must be 
supported by a fact basis; that is, the work 
seen should be so described as to show specific- 
ally what led to the conclusion stated. 

Note 2, All statements of fact regarding any 



2*j2 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

work seen will be submitted for verification to 
the one whose work is described. 
2. While getting this information, is it feasible to note 

a. The type of recitation — extent to which it is 

( 1 ) lecture ? 

(2) quiz? 

(3) combination lecture-quiz? 

(4) topical? 

(5) problem inductive-deductive? 

(6) other? 

b. Questions by teacher ' — extent to which they 

(i) test memory (mainly — who, what, 
where, type) ? 

(2) test judgment (thought provoking, vi- 
tal — how, why) ? 

(3) are leading — suggestive, pumping? 

(4) are vague, indefinite, scattering, repe- 
tition ? 

(5) are abstruse, formal, mechanical, or 
concrete, explicit, intelligible? 

c. Attitude of students — extent to which they 

(i) are really attentive, interested? 

(2) are indifferent, bored? 

(3) are delighted to be in the class, or re- 
verse ? 

(4) show hearty good fellowship with the 
instructor, or reverse? 

d. Class management 

( 1 ) Do students choose their own seats, or 
are they given permanent seats? 

(2) Is time taken at each meeting for roll 
call? 

(3) Do students appear to be called upon 
in a certain fixed order so that they 
know when they will recite ? 

(4) Is time taken up with mere mechanics 
of class work, as passing out papers. 



Classro om Instruction : A nalysis 273 

etc., or are these matters cared for 
without taking time of class? 

e. Responses of students — extent to which they 

X I ) are ready and hearty, or slow, mechan- 
ical, unwilling? 

'(2) are fluent, coherent, definite, showing 
clear thinking? 

(3) are fragmentary, disjointed? 

(4) show definite, careful preparation or 
skillful development by instructor? 

(5) appear to be guesses — " stabbing " ? 

f . The instructor — extent to which he 

( 1 ) gives evidence of thorough mastery of 
his subject? 

(2) illuminates with illustrations drawn 
from experience and wide observation 
of school work and school conditions? 
Is he contributing to educational prog- 
ress in the state and country ? How ? 

;(3) is resourceful in adapting his work to 
reactions of students, as against for- 
mal program, regardless of students' 
reactions ? 

(4) is ready in expression, able to use dy- 
namic, effective language ? 

(5) has a sense of humor, and is skillful 
in employing same in conduct of class ? 

(6) has dignity without formality, force 
and power without harshness, courtesy 
and sympathy without partiality ? 

(7) is vital, effective, a leader, or opposite? 

g. Lesson assignment — is it 

(i) definite, clear? 

(2 ) formal — from textbook ? 

(3) by topics or problems? 

(4) hastily made at dismissal? 

(5) omitted? 



274 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

h. Results 

( 1 ) What was accomplished in recitation ? 

(2) What seemed to be the frame of mind 
of students when they left classroom? 

97. Personality of Instructor 

Only a small part of the world's teaching is done in col- 
leges. Only an infinitesimal fraction of men are at any time 
in the position where they are not both giving and receiving 
instruction. Foremen are instructors as well as bosses. 
Corporation presidents are instructors as well as managers. 
Successful salesmanship is based upon successful instruction. 
It is no more true of college instruction than of any other 
vocation that personality is an important if not a determin- 
ing factor in success. 

What and how information reaches the student cannot be 
separated from the instructor's personality, but that does not 
mean what many collegians assert, that because personality 
cannot be literally measured instruction cannot be described. 

The first few times one is told : " Oh, you can't measure 
personality, for that is undefinable, immeasurable, untest- 
able, vague, indefinite, spiritual, etc.," one subsides abashed 
and apologetic. Eventually the mind rebels and asks: 
" But is it true that personality is the hardest thing in the 
world to test? Why can't it be described ? " The surveyor 
will be surprised at what will happen if he timidly asks when 
told that of course personality is an intangible, incorporeal 
quality : " What is there about a man that you judge 
quicker than his personality? Does not personality dis- 
close itself in less time than either grasp of subject or teach- 
ing technique ? " 

If personality can win appointment, promotion, dismissal; 
if it makes one such a good fellow that his time is wasted in 
good fellowship; if it causes students to flock to or from 
an instructor's courses ; if it draws students like a magnet for 
conference ; if it drives them away like a sign marked " third 
rail"; if it wins confidence; if it compels and expresses 
thoroughness; why, pray, is it impossible to describe it? 



Instructor Personality Analysed 275 

Minnesota notes each instructor's special aptitudes, kinds of 
student attracted, reputation for teaching with faculty and 
students, whether high or low marker. As Record Aids in 
College Management shows, many colleges are finding it pos- 
sible to factor student personality. Why is instructor per- 
sonality undecipherable ? 

If it were necessary to concede that describing personality 
is impossible, there would still remain the possibility of de- 
scribing the effect of teachers' personality upon students. 
The number of students who go to sleep or look out of the 
window or whisper can be counted ; an indefinite or imperti- 
nent answer can be copied ; rudeness begotten by rudeness or 
sympathy begotten by sympathy is easily described. 

There are just two hard things about describing person- 
ality; wanting to describe it, and trying to describe it 
in terms of appraisal, evaluation, or judgment. Describing 
personality has been found possible and scientific by histo- 
rians, library reviewers, and political reporters. What men 
can do out of college about people out of college men in 
college can do about one another and themselves. 

So long as self -surveyors aim to secure facts that will not 
be denied and facts that will help the instructor and the col- 
lege personality, surveys need not be feared. Many thou- 
sands of the " personality camera " card on page 257 have 
been used by principals and teachers. 

Unless there is something about the business of instruct- 
ing college students that draws a deadline beyond which per- 
sonality can no longer improve, then it will pay college in- 
structors to analyze their personality and to ask help from 
colleagues and superiors in making and in using such analy- 
sis. Nothing could be more unfair than for colleges to let 
picked men mistake personality weaknesses for signs of cul- 
ture or genius and choke or dwarf personality's strong points 
for want of pruning and weeding. 

Whatever objection there is to having a committee tell 
Professor M of personality weaknesses disclosed before 
classes cannot apply to handing Professor M a looking glass 
in the form of a list of personality weaknesses with which to 



276 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

check himself. Such a list was used by David E. Berg when 
preparing Personality Portraits of ^2 College Instructors, 
some of whom were visited only once, most of them three 
times or more. Although Mr. Berg's personality descrip- 
tions teem with direct quotations from lectures or questions, 
his motive in making these portraits was to test the claim 
that because personality defies description classroom visiting 
is futile. With his permission the personality elements listed 
on pages 2yy to 280 are commended to self -surveyors. 

As suggested elsewhere, more attention by college in- 
structors to instructor personality and to teaching efficiency 
will hasten the ability and willingness of the public to in- 
crease salaries and facilities for college instruction. 

Intelligent conservation of intellectual and teaching 
powers calls for such personality aids as this : President A 
wrote to a sister university about Professor B and was told 
that Professor B was a man of unusual power as student and 
teacher but that he had an unfortunate and unusual pitch of 
voice that made him appear weak and unpleasant. " Well 
met," said President A, " this is a fine chance to test our new 
voice clinic. If Professor B is willing to help we will 
gladly give him a year to remove this obstacle to his ad- 
vancement." Within a few months both the clinic and Pro- 
fessor B had proved their worth. 

Mens Sana in sano corpore is the faculty's justification for 
compelling a minimum of health signs and vitality for every 
student. To make health and physical vitality a sine qua 
non for membership in faculties would surpass pension sys- 
tems in beneficence. A complete physical survey, such as is 
used for students, would disclose innumerable opportunities 
to strengthen faculty personality. 

98. Personality Portraits 

The claim that personality is too elusive to be measured or 
weighed led Mr. David E. Berg, now of New York City — 
university graduate, public-school teacher, and principal — 
to visit 72 university instructors, mostly of professorial rank, 
in order to see whether and how far personality lends itself 



Personality Portraits of 72 Instructors 2^^ 

readily to simple description. Two results of six weeks' 
constant visiting are Personality Portraits of 72 College In- 
structors and a handbook of advice to students on ways of 
avoiding the type of personality that inspires and compels 
study. 

To digest Mr. Berg's descriptions would be unfair to por- 
trayed and portrayer. College teachers and administrators 
may welcome, however, the following list of personality ele- 
ments which he built up inductively as his visits increased. 
They are purposely not classified here in the hope that 
readers will think of each as a separate element that should 
or should not be separately noted when selecting instructors 
and deciding whether to continue and promote them. Per- 
sonal elements appear not always in degrees of positive qual- 
ities, but often as negative qualities; therefore the second 
list, inductively built up of negative or disqualifying ele- 
ments in personality. 

Four principles of grading will interest college teachers : 
(i) candle power (C.P., intellectual illumination) 

(2) heat (B.T.U., British thermal unit, emotional heat) 

(3) energy (K.W., or kilowats of volitional energy) 

(4) class temperature (C.T. ; i.e., class interest) 
Among ^2 instructors Mr. Berg found 11 distinct types 

which are here repeated. Please note that the marking of 
C.P., B.T.U., K.W., and C.T. is based upon the standards 
exhibited by the three personalities who are listed in the 
first type. 

1. The highest type, — the dynamic type, great intellectual 
qualities, wit, geniality, verve, depth, with students keyed 
to a high degree of interest, where a splendid personality 
obtains splendid results. Average 100: C.P. 100; 
B.T.U. 100; K.W. 100; C.T. 100. Three men are in- 
cluded in this group. 

2. Great intellectual stature, alert, exacting, straining, but 
lacking in geniality and sympathetic contact with class. 
Although highly gifted intellectually, the coldness of 
their personality seemed to have inhibited the highest 
development of the power to impart knowledge through 
a lack of power for imaginative projection; they were 



278 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

not as luminous as those of the first type. But they 
were obtaining excellent results from their students. 
Average 87: C.P. 90-95; B.T.U. 60-70; K.W. 90-100; 
C.T. 90-95. Four men are included in this group. 

3. Lesser intellectual stature, but alive, keen, alert, certain 
amount of humor, good contact with class. Fine results. 
Gave promise of further development. Average 82: 
C.P. 80-90; B.T.C. 70-90; K.W. 75-85; C.T. 80-90. 
Seventeen men are included in this group. 

4. The indolent, lackadaisical teacher of considerable abil- 
ity but resting on his oars, putting forth only part of his 
powers and energies. Average 75 : C.P. 80-85 > B.T.U. 
65-80 ; K.W. 40-85 ; C.T. 80-90. Five men are included 
in this group. They accomplished certain results by 
sheer weight of prestige and their latent smoldering 
powers. Four of them had a certain aptitude for witti- 
cism, and a proclivity for humoring the students. 

5. Men of considerable training with good grasp on sub- 
ject, sincere, a certain contact with class, poor methods, 
a laxity of standards, achieve only mediocre results, but 
interest fairly well sustained. Average ^2: C.P. 70-80; 
B.T.U. 60-80; K.W. 60-80; C.T. 65-75. Fifteen 
teachers are included in this group. 

6. The cold, assured egotistical type — medium ability but 
enormously self-assured, men past maturity who have 
accomplished certain things but are petrified and sta- 
tionary before the final decline into senility. Classes 
are deadly boring. No humor. Average 55 : C.P. 
70-75; B.T.U. 40-45; K.W. 50-60; C.T. 40-60 Five 
men are included in this group. 

7. The young, immature teachers of considerable keenness, 
whose vision is not developed, lack of perspective com- 
bined sometimes with vicious method of teaching. Lack 
of a sure grasp on the subject matter. Also lack of 
humor in all but one case. Average 52 : C.P. 50-65 ; 
B.T.U. 40-50; K.W. 40-60; C.T. 50-^0. Seven men 
are included in this group. 

8. The fakir, who runs a game of bluf¥, men in higher po- 
sition who put on a bold front to retain their position. 
Average 49: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 40-50; K.W. 50-65; 
C.T. 50-55. Three men are included in this group. 

9. The man of little ability, poor grasp on subject, cold and 



Mr. Berg's Personality Portraits 279 

flabby personality. Results are extremely unsatisfac- 
tory. Average 44: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 30-40; K.W. 
30-50 ; C.T. 40-60. Five men are included in this group. 
Senile dotard type, no life, warmth, or interest, no 
humor. Average 37: C.P. 40-50; B.T.U. 10-30; K.W. 
30-40; C.T. 20-60. Three men are in this group. 
The practically futile teacher, with no strength of char- 
acter, poor grasp of subject matter and lack of proper 
training. Average 28: C.P. 10-30; B.T.U. 15-30; 
K.W. 30-40 ; C.T. 30-40. Three teachers are here. 

99. Desirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. David 
E. Berg when Observing ^2 University Instructors 

Intellectual Qualities 



10. 



II. 



Profundity- 


Vision 


Interest-arousing 


Comprehensiveness 


Imagination 


Wit 


Incisiveness 


Associativeness 


Brilliance 


Open-mindedness 


Originality 


Figures of speech 


Balance 


Resourcefulness 


Related anecdotes 


Logicality- 


Clearness 


Personal experiences 


Coherence 


Verve and dash 
Emotional Qualities 




Tact 


Pleasant voice 


Democracy- 


Courtesy 


Expressive face 


Address 


Neatness 


Good diction 


Charm 


Natural manner 


Humor 


Taste 


Poise 


Enthusiasm 


Esthetic sense 


Sympathy 


Responsiveness 


Tolerance 


Even temper 


Volitional Qualities 




Dignity and reserve 


Decisiveness 


Clear-mindedness 


Aggressiveness 


Sincerity 


Courage 


Encouraging 


Industry 


Exacting 


Independence of judg- 


Fairness 


Firmness 


ment 


Modesty 





100. Undesirable Personal Elements Found by Mr. Berg 



Shallowness 

Narrowness 

Bigoted 

Erratic 

Illogicality 



Intellectual Qualities 

Dependence Obscurity 

Muddle-headed Inertness 

Short-visioned Tedious 

Matter of fact Dullness 
Wooden-minded 



28o Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 



Blundering 

Seediness 

Slovenliness 

Aflfectation 

111 at ease 

Unsympathetic 

Irascible 

Lackadaisical 
Repressing 
Hidebound 
Wavering 



Emotional Qualities 

Grating 
Impassiveness 
Poor diction 
Solemnity- 
Diffidence 
Snobbishness 

Volitional Qualities 

Hypocrisy 
Indolence 
Autocratic 
Conceit 



Poor contact 

Boorishness 

Lack of taste 

Thick-headed 

Prosaic 

Intolerance 



Lasciviousness 

Cowardice 

Lax 



lOI. 



Use of Minimum Essentials 

The efficiency of a teaching program will quickly be 
learned by asking where and what minimum essentials have 
been defined and insisted upon. One reason why the clas- 
sics, mathematics, and exact sciences have so long been held 
to have special disciplinary and educative value is that each 
has its definite list of minimum essentials to be taught and to 
be acquired. 

No subject is without its peculiar minimum essentials, 
lacking any one of which a student cannot master that sub- 
ject. Physical training has minimum essentials. Admis- 
sion requirements have minimum essentials. Most colleges 
advertise minimum essentials of attendance and of punctu- 
ality. 

Whether each instructor of each subject has definitely out- 
lined minimum essentials for his course can be learned by 
self-surveyors. Whether these essentials are personal and 
secret, or known also to colleagues and to students, can also 
be learned. If communicated to students, it is important to 
learn whether the communication is oral merely or by syl- 
labus. Where students have been told what the minimum 
essentials are, it is possible by examining papers already 
written, or by imposing special tests, to learn whether mas- 
tery of these minimum essentials is tested and rigidly re- 
quired. 

Knowing how to study ought to be a minimum essential 
for college and student. No college has the right to accept 



Minimum Essentials for Colleges 281 

tuition and time from a growing or grown man or woman 
who after earnest and well-directed effort by instructors has 
not learned how to study. No student capable of learning 
how to study is getting his money's worth until he has 
learned. Whatever time is required to find out if each stu- 
dent knows how to study, that time should be spent. 
Whether each instructor looks for this minimum essential 
for each student in his course is a question of fact for sur- 
veyors to answer. 

What the minimum essentials are for each subject taught 
in college would require several volumes to answer. In ele- 
mentary schools extensive use is being made just now of 
standard scales. Unfortunately a movement which started 
with the minimum-essential idea has been rapidly swinging 
toward the average-accomplishment idea. Obviously the 
two ideas are quite distinct. A student may be far above 
the average and still lack minimum essentials. An in- 
structor may be above the average and still lack minimum 
essentials, absence of any one of which should disqualify a 
man from instructing. 

The absurdity of measurements against averages was re- 
cently pointed out by William McAndrew of New York, who 
noted that Brooklyn pupils when measured by Courtis arith- 
metic tests were above the average in speed but below the 
average in accuracy : " In other words it takes us less time 
than it takes others to do things wrong." Local search for 
description and use of minimum essentials will help far 
more as a first step than unquestioning adoption of stand- 
ards set up by others. Dr. A. E. Winship reinforces this 
truth by citing the speed of an express train, an automobile, 
a horse, and a wheelbarrow and asking what use can be made 
of their average speed ! 

Among minimum-essential tests that should be found at 
work in every college are these : 

I. For each instructor — minimum essentials 

1. Of personality. 

2. Of previous teaching and field experience. 

3. Of teaching ability. 



282 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

4. Of specific preparation for each course. 

5. Of special preparation for each meeting with 
class. 

6. List of minimum essentials for each course. 

7. Exaction of these minimum essentials from 
each student. 

8. Analysis of each student's needs, capacities, 
difficulties. 

2. For each subject — minimum essentials 

1. Of purpose — before and after it is admitted to 
the curriculum. 

2. Ground to be covered. 

3. Methods to be employed. 

4. How to be studied. 

3. Other minimum essentials needed 

1. For every set of examination questions before 
they are given to students. 

2. For every method and textbook before and 
after trial. 

3. For every instructor's work before he is per- 
manently engaged or promoted or voted a sal- 
ary increase. 

4. For every instructor considered for a depart- 
ment head, before his election. 

5. For every department head after trial before 
being continued or reappointed. 

6. For all persons considered for directorships of 
courses before giving them serious considera- 
tion and before continuing or reappointing 
them. 

7. For all persons proposed for administrative po- 
sitions before serious consideration and after 
trial, before continuation, reappointment, or 
promotion. 

8. For all persons proposed for presidency and 
deanships — which call for a rare combination 
of teaching and administrative ability — before 



Minimum Essentials Needed 283 

serious consideration and after trial, before 
permanent appointment, reappointment, or sal- 
ary increase. 
9. For every person proposed or tentatively con- 
sidered for trusteeship before serious consider- 
ation and particularly before reappointment. 

10. For every student desiring to continue merely 
as a college student before permitting him to 
register. 

11. For all official statements by colleges. 

12. For college appeals and budget estimates. 

Since in most cases it will be found that the idea of mini- 
mum essentials has not yet been accepted, the main value of 
a survey for minimum essentials will be to interest the fac- 
ulty in working out for each department and for college ac- 
tivities generally a statement of purposes and minimum 
essentials. 

102. Analyzing Student Capacity and Need 

Dean Keppel of Columbia College keeps a personal mem- 
orandum for each student, showing his college record, his 
outside activities, plan for life, special interests, etc. Pratt 
Institute has a point and honor system in its physical-train- 
ing work which proves the value of factoring student needs 
and capacities. Lafayette's dean requires a special report 
for each delinquent student, in which the student must as- 
sign a reason for failure, state assistance given, and suggest 
future treatment. Pratt Institute requires from each in- 
structor for each student a personality impression with a list 
of weak points, strong points, and needs. Cincinnati's dean 
of arts learns for each halting student facts about entrance 
preparation; outside work; health; teacher's estimate of 
ability; diligence with respect to attendance, papers, and 
quizzes ; time given to studies ; purpose and plans and recom- 
mendations. 

Capacity analysis is carried further by Dean Schneider of 
Cincinnati's engineering school, who does not wait until de- 



284 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

linquency before studying and noting characteristics. 
(Detailed in Record Aids in College Management.) 

Dean Jones of Northwestern' s college of education has 
asked other divisions to allow his faculty and research stu- 
dents to take these steps regarding failures: 

1. To retain them a second semester instead of dismiss- 
ing them. 

2. To refer them to the college of education for analysis 
of causes. 

3. To require them to take with the college of education 
a two-hour non-credit course in " How to Study." 

Reason enough for analyzing causes and costs and inci- 
dents of failure may be found in studying the mortality or 
dropping out of any college. For a large university the 
number runs into the hundreds annually. Surveyors will 
ask: 

1. Do records show failures by number ..., semester 
. . ., subject . . ., instructor . . . ? 

2. How many credit hours were attempted and failed? 

3. What total costs of instruction and living are repre- 
sented by these failures ? 

4. What instructions are given to faculty members with 
respect to learning the causes of failure? 

5. What is done to see that instructions are carried out ? 

6. What preventive steps are taken, recorded, studied, 
and announced ? 

7. What subtraction should be made from the total reg- 
istration in order that credits failed shall not be in- 
cluded in the total of effective student registration? 
This item often runs to 15 or 20%. 

8. What explanations were published last year for stu- 
dents' failing ? Was inefficient teaching or ill-chosen 
course among them ? 

9. Of total number reported as dropping out before com- 
pleting the year, how many dropped out voluntarily 
and how many were advised to drop out because of 
student failure or weakness ? 




Dayton Bureau of Research 
Preparing comparative tables for citizens is quite different from preparing such 
comparisons for college students who cannot stay away or get away 




Professional educators also learn best by doing 



Dayton 



Graduate Work Needs Challenge 285 

103. Graduate Work 

Whatever method will find the trouble about and oppor- 
tunity in undergraduate work will find the trouble about and 
opportunity in graduate work. There are, however, a few 
questions which seldom arise in colleges until graduate 
courses are given. 

" Insincere " is declared by President Pritchett of the 
Carnegie Foundation to apply to graduate work as to no 
other work in American colleges. So far as insincerity char- 
acterizes graduate work, it inevitably affects undergraduate 
work also and any other work done by the same organiza- 
tion. 

Although a small minority of colleges are as yet giving 
actual graduate work, it is the secret, if not heralded, ambi- 
tion of most of them to grow until they can offer graduate 
courses. They advertise their " easement " by giving the 
master's degree. All but three colleges in the Association 
of Colleges in the Southern States offer master's degrees. 

Credit for in absentia graduate work — i.e., for "pro- 
jected registration " — is growing. There is every reason to 
believe that the smaller colleges will organize for supervising 
study and research by persons at work in different profes- 
sions who can receive exactly as much help from a small col- 
lege as from the same grade of instructor in a university. 
When the fact becomes clearer to small colleges that great 
universities are giving master's degrees for a year's work 
that is graduate only in the sense that it is done after a per- 
son has graduated, and undergraduate in the sense that it is 
elementary work, they will refuse to let universities monop- 
olize the tuition and prestige that come with the name 
" graduate instruction.'* 

Among the insincerities that President Pritchett doubtless 
had in mind may be mentioned these : 

1. Attracting graduate students by announcements of 
courses that are not given. 

2. Giving first advanced — i.e., master's — degrees, 
without significance of scholarship or attainment, 



286 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

thereby sharing the student's effort to trade upon the 
ignorance of school boards and other employers. 

3. Calling any work graduate which is taken by a grad- 
uate student, although it may be freshman or junior 
grade (a practice opposed by the Iowa and Wisconsin 
surveys). 

4. Overstating and misrepresenting the amount of ad- 
vance work done, by publishing the total graduate stu- 
dents without making clear how many of them are 
taking all or part of their work in undergraduate 
courses. 

5. Accepting or retaining graduate students after they 
have demonstrated absence of ambition or capacity, 
and absence of personal initiative or courage to meet 
the world's tests. 

6. Encouraging recent graduates who know no world ex- 
cept college to stay at college until they secure higher 
degrees. 

7. Allowing courses to repeat or overlap. 

8. Allowing graduate students to waste time on futile 
reading or futile lectures even if there is a commercial 
advantage in reputation for graduate work. 

9. Failing to give the personal supervision which is sup- 
posed to be the essence of graduate work. The fol- 
lowing quotation is not untypical : " Absolutely the 
only thing which any professor did about my thesis 
was to call attention to three words that were several 
times misspelled." 

10. Giving superficial examinations for degrees. 

11. Accepting superficial studies leading to inconsequen- 
tial theses for degrees. 

12. Failing to test study plans, working papers during the 
study's progress, or thesis. 

13. Accepting and advertising as contributions to knowl- 
edge theses which no magazine or independent pub- 
lisher would issue, with inaccuracies, poor construc- 
tion, and errors in English which would flunk a fresh- 
man. Frequently the fact that a work is a doctor's 



Graduate Work: Fetich or Worth? 287 

thesis is not mentioned because publishers, Hbrarians, 
and buyers have grown skeptical about doctorate prod- 
ucts. On my desk is a doctor's thesis published by 
one of our greatest private universities which is nine 
tenths " pastepot and scissors" work; i.e., extracts 
from papers by public employees, etc. Most of the 
persons quoted would not be allowed to attend under- 
graduate lectures at this university for want of aca- 
demic training; yet a graduate student is given a 
doctor's degree for cleverly clipping their published 
reports. 

14. Allowing theses to appear as if published and en- 
dorsed by scientific journals when in fact the author- 
doctor pays for issuing them. 

15. Asserting that there is per se something about giving 
graduate work which improves the character of under- 
graduate work. 

All over this country able teachers and supervisors are 
overworking and underfeeding themselves and neglecting 
their own pupils in order to save money and time for grad- 
uate work in education. Not infrequently this work is con- 
sidered by them in every way but one an obstruction to pro- 
fessional growth. They waste time and listen to people 
who ought to be listening to them, for such reasons as the 
following given to me by a school superintendent whose an- 
nual report showed that he had actually done notably well 
what his graduate instructors had never even attempted and 
could but feebly talk about : " No one seems interested in 
my work results. If I play the little white-haired boy on the 
front seat with Professors Blank and Blanker, they will back 
me for a better position than I can ever hope to secure just 
from successful superintending." 

Obviously the question for surveyors is not how can we get 
along without graduate work but how specific are the in- 
sincerities and inadequacies of our graduate work ; and how 
can we substitute definitcness for vagueness, educational pur- 
pose for money purpose, growth for time killing? The 
president of the Association of Southern Colleges hazards 



288 Self Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

the ** guess that not more than ten institutions in the United 
States are indubitably equipped to give the Doctor of Phil- 
osophy degree." 

Think what it means that a student can secure a doctor's 
degree in education without having taught or supervised 
other teachers one hour, and without having had one hour's 
contact, even as investigator, with a growing educational 
concern ! 

In surveying graduate work it is particularly important to 
take nothing for granted and to check every statement and 
belief by examination of actual work. What is needed 
first is a careful, exhaustive description of all the elements 
of what any particular college calls graduate work. 

How many courses are offered ; how many are given ; 

how many not given? 

Is it possible to take a whole program of graduate 

courses in one's chosen field ? F. . . iV... ?,,. 

How many are exclusively for advanced students in 

the particular course and subject? 

What is the grade distribution of all students in all 

courses where graduates are registered ? 

What facts are recorded with regard to graduate 

students, their previous work, their aims, and field 

work done by them ? 

6. What if any difference is there between the work re- 
quired of graduates or attention given to them and the 
treatment given to undergraduates? Does the M.A. 
" mean only that a promising student has stayed 
on for another year or so and continued his under- 
graduate studies " ? 

7. How are thesis subjects selected ; i.e., with what refer- 
ence to student capacity, student experience, local 
materials, and local needs ? Do subjects indicate pur- 
poseful selection? 

8. How definitely are investigation subjects outlined be- 
fore studies begin? 

9. What record have the professor and graduate dean 
of plans for investigations and theses? 



Questions or Notes 289 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



290 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

10. How does the student make record of time spent, fields 
examined, sources consulted ? 

11. Is the trail blazed; i.e., are working papers filed as 
evidence of workmanship ¥.,, N . , . f . . . ; are they 
examined by professor or dean as Mr. Edison ex- 
amines working papers of employees conducting in- 
vestigations under and for him ? y . . . N . . , 
? 

• • • • 

12. Is there any record of the time given to investigations 
and theses by the supervising instructors? Y.,. 
N... 

13. How far is so-called investigation largely " pastepot 
and scissors " work, and how far actually research ? 

14. To what extent is the graduate student allowed and 
compelled to learn via doing something which needs 
to be done for his college or for society? 

15. Do professors feel that their function in graduate in- 
struction is to keep forcing the student back upon 
himself . . ., to keep him and PROBLEM in proper 
contact . . . , rather than to do work for him . . . , lay 
information before him ... or test his memory . . . ? 

When it comes to testing actual workmanship, only de- 
tailed scientific analysis of results will help. The manage- 
ment's plans may be scholarly. On paper the procedure 
may be scientific. The questions which the dean is supposed 
to ask may be comprehensive. The surveyor must review 
actual registration cards; actual working plans; reports of 
progress, etc., to see whether the management is doing what 
it defines as necessary. Student workmanship calls for the 
same kind of analysis which research reports, history text- 
books, and literary essays receive from commercial labora- 
tories and publishers. 

There may be some difference of opinion as to the ex- 
haustiveness necessary in graduate study or as to its social 
value and originality. There is no outspoken belief that 
within its scope graduate work may be inaccurate or super- 
ficial, graduate writing slovenly or unreadable, graduate per- 
sonality unfitted for work undertaken, or graduate examina- 



Scientific Tests of Student Research 291 

tions superficial and futile. The quality of a thesis cannot 
be determined by its general appearance, the neatness of its 
typography, the reputation of its endorser or a survey of its 
title page. Theses must be read word for word. Misspell- 
ing, incorrect English, involved sentences, bad paragraphing, 
confusing punctuation, plagiarisms, and futilities must be 
noted as discovered. 

Evidences of unscholarly workmanship have each an abso- 
lute value not to be outweighed by excellences or ingenuity. 
Only by featuring each deficiency discovered can a college 
ask the questions necessary to ascertain whether it expects 
enough from and does enough for graduate work; whether 
its instructors, departments, and deans are asking enough 
questions about work in progress and are sufficiently protect- 
ing student time and college reputation. 

A professor of history responsible for reviewing a large 
number of historical works says : " The only purpose of a 
reference to author, book, chapter, or page is to help the 
reader find a fact or verify a statement. If the reference is 
wrong the reader's time is wasted.'' Whatever motive leads 
to a direct quotation in a master's or doctor's thesis also calls 
for a correct quotation. Any student who has not acquired 
during graduate work the habit of automatically checking 
for accuracy is apt to be injured rather than helped by his 
postgraduate experience. Whether he has the habit of veri- 
fying experiments and references ; of automatically checking 
processes; of applying scientific methods of analysis and in- 
vestigation to tasks, large or small, surveyors can learn not 
by talking with the man or his instructors but by examining 
his everyday workmanship. 

The more exacting American colleges are when surveying 
graduate work, the greater will seem the need and oppor- 
tunity for graduate work. The more closely the fetish of 
*' original contribution to knowledge " is analyzed, the more 
clearly our colleges will see that the greatest possible service 
of graduate work is to uncover, try out, and prove student 
ability to apply the methods of scientific analysis and the 
ideals of cultured citizenship to specific, localized, time-lim- 
ited human problems. 



292 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Five recommendations regarding graduate work at Iowa 
State University and its State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanical Arts were made by the Iowa Survey Commis- 
sion: 

1. That development of graduate work be encouraged. 

2. That graduate status be denied to students not having 
a definite proportion of their registration in courses 
for graduates only. 

3. That some representative body decide which depart- 
ments are to be encouraged to develop graduate 
courses and which to be discouraged. 

4. That greater care be exercised in admitting students 
from other institutions to graduate standing. 

5. That there be a standing committee on graduate work, 
to consist of two members of the state board of edu- 
cation and two members each from the two institu- 
tions giving graduate work, — the latter to be elected 
for a term of years by graduate faculties. 

The foregoing recommendations are preceded by state- 
ments of fact and discussion, the essence of which follows : 

1. Iowa University distinguishes between admission to 
the graduate college and admission to candidacy for 
a degree. 

2. Each case is determined upon its own merits. 

3. Students coming from approved colleges are not tested 
at all. 

4. Students coming from not-yet-approved colleges are 
tested by departments as to their major work only. 

5. Graduate students register in courses for undergrad- 
uates. 

6. Master's degree is given for four summer sessions of 
six weeks each — i.e., 24 weeks ; or for two semesters 
of 18 weeks each — i.e., 36 weeks. 

7. The summer session work is supplemented by " pro- 
jected register " — i.e., work in absentia, according to 
a plan agreed upon with some authorized instructor; 
credits earned through projected register may equal 



Iowa Survey Criticizes Graduate Work 293 

those previously earned in the same subject and resi- 
dence. 

8. The projected register reduces materially the time 
required for earning the doctor's degree. 

9. There is a wide difference in the amount and spirit 
of graduate work in the different departments. 

10. Instructors not distinguished for published results of 
research are directing thesis work or are engaged in 
" creative work " which is regarded as equal to re- 
search. 

The following opinions expressed by the commission have 
important bearing for other colleges and universities: 

1. A student registering for work in a field for which he 
has had no preparation in his undergraduate work 
should be registered as an undergraduate until he is 
ready to carry advance courses or courses for grad- 
uates only. 

2. No institution can do equally strong work in all de- 
partments that announce graduate courses, even if an 
equal number of students should appear for each de- 
partment. 

3. Certain departments should be specially encouraged 
to develop the most advanced courses of instruction 
and research by special care in selecting new men, by 
encouraging research workers of promise already on 
the staff, and by generous appropriation in the uni- 
versity budget. 

Not a word is said as to supervision of graduate work or is 
there intimation that the researcher of distinction may be a 
hopeless incompetent when directing graduate work by oth- 
ers, or that the undistinguished or not-yet-distinguished fac- 
ulty member may be notably efficient in finding questions that 
need to be answered and in directing graduate research and 
reporting. 

104. Learning via Doing 

Every teacher of natural science asserts the superiority 
of the laboratory method. Where is the geologist who 



294 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

would decline to organize his work from top to bottom if 
given Woods' Hole or funds for conducting a geological 
survey ? 

Learning via doing is the justification for oral and writ- 
ten composition in Latin; for vivisection in zoology and 
physiology; for themes in English and reference work in 
history ; for scientific research in the graduate school. 

Colleges become skeptical about the laboratory method at 
the point where their own laboratory facilities give out. 
Having done the best we could for generations without 
work needing to be done, without telescopes and microscopes 
and clinical material, we find it disheartening to be criti- 
cized for the inevitable consequence of our poverty. Talk 
about doing and things done — talk about business, com- 
merce, sick bodies — is so thoroughly organized and so com- 
fortably under way that even when funds are provided for 
so-called practical courses in journalism, business, transpor- 
tation, statistics, we run true to form and give new courses 
of talk about practical things. 

Whether a particular college is fully using its facilities at 
hand for training students via doing rather than via listen- 
ing and reading is a simple question of fact that a self- 
survey can quickly answer for each instructor in each course. 

Typical of learning via doing at the University of Wiscon- 
sin the following were cited by the survey: 

1. In the library course 8 weeks out of 36 given to actual 
work under supervision in various public libraries. 

2. In the law course after July i, 19 16, at least 6 months 
of work in a law office. 

3. Working fellowships for students engaged under 
university supervision in work in state departments 
at the Capitol. 

4. Teaching fellowships for selected students from the 
training course for teachers. 

5. Industrial scholarships for practical artisans whom it 
is desired to retain for teaching practical subjects. 

6. Special appeal by the Medical School for opportunity 
to extend its present course to include not only the 



Learning via Doing at Wisconsin 295 

usual clinical education, but also field service in the 
hospitals and other public institutions of the state 
and of various cities away from Madison. 

7. Six months of actual work on a farm a prerequisite 
for a degree in the College of Agriculture. 

8. Full charge for one week of a practice cottage re- 
quired in the home economics department. 

9. Recognition by commerce course and economics de- 
partment of the need for a laboratory of practical 
problems. 

10. Beginnings of use of college student publications as 
" clinic " or '' laboratory " opportunity for students of 
journalism and presentation of technical matter — 
The Wisconsin Engineer for the engineering depart- 
ment and Country Life for the course in agricultural 
journalism. In October and November, 1916, stu- 
dents of journalism had nearly three columns a day 
in two Madison newspapers. 

1 1 . Use of assistance from state department through prob- 
lems under which students of political economy, en- 
gineering, etc., work under joint supervision of uni- 
versity and state departments. 

12. Assignments given by state legislative reference li- 
brary and state library commission at the Capitol to 
students in political science, economics, library school, 
etc. 

13. Laboratory instruction of prospective teachers 
through the Wisconsin high schools. 

14. An extensive course of lectures, including special li- 
brary and field studies in labor problems, which bore 
notable fruition in the opportunities for students in 
this course to participate in the state and national 
work of the industrial commission. 

15. Opening the fields of higher education to students 
who are unable to attend the university and who wish 
to do the work by correspondence or by correspond- 
ence supplemented by class work in the district offices 
of the Extension Division. 



296 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

16. A " German House," with rooms for women and 
board for men and women where only German is 
spoken. 

17. Beginnings of special work for engineers in city plan- 
ning, in making roads and pavements, and inspec- 
tion tours (at least two weeks for seniors), besides 
visits to manufacturing plants in Madison. 

18. Normal-school work accepted in exchange for two 
years at the university. 

19. Music regarded as college work and given credit, 
hour for hour, through the college course in music. 

20. Crediting special advanced work during vacation in 
laboratories and library, if certified by supervising 
professor, toward an advanced degree. 

Probably the best first step for a survey is to ask each 
instructor to list specific ways in which he uses the laboratory 
method. This composite will be for most colleges much 
larger than officers have realized. It will be more profitable 
to start with steps already being taken than with steps not 
yet taken. 

The fact that learning via doing is attempted does not 
prove that students either do or learn. Having listed the 
places and times when getting done is used for teaching, the 
surveyor has still to test the completeness and worth-while- 
ness of the doing and the extent to which students learn by 
doing. For example, a college class was taught the mean- 
ing of averages, mediums and norms, by picking, counting, 
measuring, and classifying dry leaves. Similar doings will 
raise a question whether educational results justify the 
method. Substitutes for picking dry leaves will be found 
by most faculties rather than abandon the principle of teach- 
ing via assignment of work and via laboratory practice; 
for example, medians can be learned by counting rooms not 
used or too small classes. 

Nothing will prevent the thorough discrediting of learn- 
ing by doing except a jealous insistence upon efficiency and 
value of the doing and upon making educational use of it. 



English Needs Surveys 297 

Nothing is so impractical and deadening as practical courses 
unimaginatively and uneducatively taught. 

105. English as Taught and Practiced 

English requirements illustrate a distinction that is gen- 
erally overlooked between requiring every student to use 
English correctly and requiring every student to take a cer- 
tain number of English courses. It by no means follows 
that a student who uses poor English in history ought 
to take more English in the English classes. Colleges are 
beginning to suspect that a cure for bad English in history 
is good English in history. If the privilege of remaining 
in college and of taking subjects that one wants depends upon 
ability to use — read, understand, write, speak — the Eng- 
lish language, perhaps the shortcut for colleges is to stress 
the result and stop worrying about the means. 

Compulsory English in colleges begets compulsory Eng- 
lish in high schools, more compulsion in colleges begets more 
compulsion in high schools. Yet colleges themselves insist 
that student English would " make literate angels weep." 

Most colleges will be surprised when the facts are laid out 
which show how many students after being vaccinated with 
compulsory English have chosen or been willing to risk later 
exposure to English electives. Starting with this fact for 
each college, these questions will follow : 

1. Has our compulsion given us creditable student Eng- 
lish among freshmen ..., sophomores ..., juniors 
... and seniors . . . ? 

2. What is there about our particular student body which 
would naturally make it shun the riches of English 
literature ? 

3. Do our instructors themselves appreciate and under- 
stand the value of English literature . . . ? 

4. Is failure of appeal due to courses offered ..., an- 
nouncement of courses — , reputation of elective 
courses . . . , or earlier compulsion . . . ? 

5. Are the content and method of the compulsory 



298 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

courses calculated to accomplish the results which 
prompt the compulsion? Y , . , N . , , 

Help in answering the above questions will come from 
detailed study of the English actually taught and practiced 
in the compulsory courses. Oral work will be observed and 
written work will be examined in both English and other 
classes. Errors will be listed, with what is done about them 
by instructors. Student improvement will be noted by com- 
paring first-term work with second-term work, not in gen- 
eral but with respect to particular weaknesses noted at the 
beginning. As suggested elsewhere, a study of students* 
written work will be far more productive if the surveyor is 
looking for student need and instructor opportunity rather 
than for student attainment. 

Helpful survey questions include these: 

1. Are there "trailer" classes in English; i.e., "no 
credit " classes for those whose work shows them de- 
ficient in power to read, write, or speak correct Eng- 
lish? F... iV...^ 

2. Is deficiency ascertained by instructors in other than 
English classes ... or solely by tests in English 
courses . . . ? Do we " actually have to write letters 
of application for our senior teachers who are apply- 
ing for positions " ? 

3. Are freshmen who possess satisfactory ability ex- 
empted from compulsory English courses? Y,,. 
iV... 

4. Is effort made to learn whether the lagging students* 
trouble is inability to use English ... or in his grow- 
ing and trying ; i.e., in his feeling for the ends to 

which English is but a means ? Is his capacity to en- 
joy literature and language killed by meticulous dis- 
section of masterpieces? Y . . , N , , , 

5. Are first English courses given on the assumption 
that all freshmen will take the full college course or 
on the assumption that probably the majority will 
drop out before taking other English ; i.e., is this com- 



English Instruction: Questions 2C)g 

pulsory English vocational preparation for later 
courses that many will not take ... or is it vocational 
preparation for mere living . . . , for business or pro- 
fession . . . , and for enjoyment of literature . . . ? 

6. What is done to learn about the student's reading be- 
fore and after coming to college? Do English teach- 
ers learn whether students know how to read for 
pleasure . . . , how to gain a story from a page with- 
out reading every word . . . ? 

7. What subjects do students write about? Have they 
to write something ... or have they something to 
write . . . ? How far are incidents and conditions 
of vital concern to students used as clinical matter 
in English? Would current magazines and newspa- 
pers furnish a shorter cut to love for masterpieces 
than does forced labor at masterpieces or themes 
about masterpieces ? 

8. Have we ever tried substituting assignments in ob- 
servation and service for assignments in reading and 
composition? Y.,, N... 

9. Is work in literary and debating societies, school jour- 
nals, etc., credited as college work in English? F. , . 
iV. . . Is class rhetoric made vital by current events 
. . ., debates . . ., self-government . . ., tests of leader- 
ship . . . ? 

10. Is individual instruction more productive than class 
instruction in English? 

11. Is it made easy for instructors in other than English 
courses to secure correction and improvement of stu- 
dent English ; i.e., are they permitted to refuse credit 
where English is unsatisfactory? Y... N.,. 
May they subtract 10 or 25 points for deficient form 
and English? F. . . N. . . Are they supplied with 
slips or cards by which they may notify the Engb'sh 
department of a student needing special attention to 
points checked on this slip? F. . . A/"... Is the 
English department equipped to follow up promptly 
such notifications? F. . . N, , , 



300 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

12. Do English instructors visit classes in other courses 
to observe oral English ? F . . . N . . . 

13. Are special courses offered for workers in special 
fields, — engineering . . . , medicine . . . , law . . . , 
teaching . . . ? 

14. What general reading or what reports upon outside 
reading are required? Do English instructors meet 
students socially for cultivation of literary feeling and 
expression? Y.., iV. . . 

15. What do instructors who give advance English 
courses note from observation of difficulties and ac- 
complishments of beginning courses? 

Some years ago, Mr. C. R. Rounds, of Wisconsin's nor- 
mal inspectional staff and later of its university faculty, 
made a number of suggestions regarding English in college 
classes, which are repeated here for use by self -surveyors : 

1. That instead of treating freshmen as inferiors, col- 
leges recognize that in their senior high-school year 
the same boys and girls were treated as refined, re- 
sponsible, steady, manly and womanly young people? 

2. That more attention be given to oral English, be- 
cause we talk nearly 100 times as much as we write; 
that a ban be put on incomplete statements, mumbles, 
and monosyllables. 

3. That in oral and written work more use be made of 
college events and enterprises, such as public lectures 
and entertainments, papers and magazines, outside life 
of students. 

4. That real letters to real people be liberally used in 
theme work to recognize the need for ability to write 
frank, courteous, chatty, interesting matter which 
some one wants to receive. 

5. That requirements as to proper spelling of possessive 
nouns, capitalization of titles, proper punctuation and 
form be rigorously enforced. 

6. That in the first literature courses warmth, life, spon- 
taneity, and ideaHsm be featured and not suppressed. 



Language Instruction: Tests 301 

7. That the importance of proper method in teaching be 
recognized and not underestimated or ignored. [To 
illustrate poor technique Mr. Rounds cited instructors 
who read themes of from 150 to 300 words without 
having told students what elements they were to look 
for and then asked students to criticize the sentence 
construction or to repeat the opening paragraph.] 

8. That more attention be given to the art of question- 
ing. An instance was cited of a professor who asked 
a question and before the student had time to answer 
changed the question five times so that the student 
after the sixth question did not know what the pro- 
fessor wanted. 

106. Status of Foreign Languages 

So far as foreign languages are compulsory suggestions 
for surveying them are given on page 238. If, as many 
believe, the status of foreign languages will improve when 
they are placed upon an equal footing with other courses and 
deprived of compulsion, there are many questions to be 
asked about foreign languages. 

After having the number of registrations for each course 
offered, it is important to know the distribution of grades 
given by each instructor. These grades will show what 
the instructor believes is acquired from his course. More 
vital than the reason cited for teaching foreign languages 
is the manner and content of such teaching. 

I. Is the direct (speaking) ... or indirect (reading) . . . 
method employed? If the speaking method is not 
employed, how much time is given to pronunciation ? 
If the speaking method is employed, what are the 
evidences that it is successful? How are results 
tested ? How many hours a week are given to speak- 
ing? How many chances has each student a week? 
In what ways is the classroom opportunity supple- 
mented by out of class opportunity, as at a special 
table in a French house, on a German hike or Zug^ 
through foreign newspapers or magazines? 



302 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

2. How early in the course does the teacher use only the 
foreign language ? From the beginning . . . ; at the 
middle . . . ; enough . . . ? 

3. What advance courses are given in the foreign lan- 
guage only ? What in English only ? 

4. How much and what kind of written composition and 
oral composition is done by a student in foreign lan- 
guage? How often? In what size class? 

5. What concrete evidences are there that students taught 
by the direct method have been able to conduct busi- 
ness or professional conversations in that language? 

One reason why the direct method is not more generally 
used is that colleges have been unable to obtain men and 
women who are at once college graduates, capable instruc- 
tors, and capable linguists. It is easier to secure persons 
who combine general teaching ability with a reading knowl- 
edge of the language, hence many of our stronger universi- 
ties are found to have both beginning and advanced classes 
in foreign languages conducted by men and women unable 
to compose and pronounce properly the simplest sentence 
necessary for ordering a meal, entertaining a customer, or 
explaining the origin of the European war. Where this in- 
direct method is found the first question should be Why ? — 
i.e.. Do we have it because we want it or because we do not 
find a person capable of teaching the conversational method? 

Justification for the indirect method is by no means lacking. 
Many business houses want ability to translate Spanish into 
English without ability to translate English into Spanish 
or to speak a word of Spanish. Graduate students want to 
read in foreign languages without expecting to write or 
speak in those languages. Ability to pronounce bromidic 
phrases in foreign tongues is an asset worth much to many. 
Distinction may be gained in professions and careers where 
ability to read foreign languages is or seems indispensable 
without even one's intimates discovering one's inability to 
write, pronounce, or speak a complete sentence in those lan- 
guages. 

What a particular student or class can do in our college 



Benefits from Foreign Languages 3^3 

after studying a foreign language six months or four years 
is a question of fact easily testable. Even the extent to 
which his English, his feeling, his vision, his sympathy have 
become refined, cultured, catholic, can be tested. The main 
trouble is that the need for testing has been obscured by 
the traditional reasons for taking foreign languages, such 
as that per se they have higher disciplinary value, and in prac- 
tice are better taught than are other subjects. This alleged 
better teaching is v^ithout doubt due to the grammar prob- 
lems involved in learning foreign languages; elements are 
cubbyholed and tackled more definitely than in the social sci- 
ences and the content has a broader appeal than that of 
mathematics and natural sciences. 

Whether a foreign language gives discipline and is well 
or badly taught is to be learned in the same way that any 
other fact is found out, by analyzing and observing the 
phenomena under discussion : 

1. What is the purpose of each course? 

2. How many students have taken courses? 

3. How many have not given evidence that they learned 
so much of it as was covered in their course ? 

4. How many have given evidence of benefiting in pro- 
portion to the opportunity? 

5. What is the nature of that evidence? 

6. So far as there was failure, what is the evidence that 
the fault was with the student, or with the method 
used in teaching, or with the instructor ? 

7. What kinds of test have been worked out by each 
foreign-language department to see how many stu- 
dents obtain the minimum they are expected to ob- 
tain? 

8. Which departments have and have not worked out 
the minimum essentials which must be obtained from 
each course ? 

9. If survey courses in foreign literatures are given in 
English, why should there be foreign language pre- 
requisites; i.e., why should courses not be thrown 
open to all students ? 



304 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

10. If the engineer who elects French finds German un- 
necessary, and the engineer who chooses German finds 
French unnecessary, why is either French or German 
necessary for an engineer who reads current engineer- 
ing journals in English? 

In few colleges will foreign-language faculties welcome 
a test of their work by members of other faculties, at least 
until after they themselves have made the test. Few, how- 
ever, will decline to work out tests to be applied by them- 
selves. 

How far unbiased consideration of the need for and suc- 
cess of foreign languages in a given college is made dif- 
ficult by the " vested rights '' idea of those now teaching 
foreign languages and sister compulsory subjects will 
quickly develop on self -survey. 

The case for requiring foreign languages before and 
after admission to college was summarized for the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin survey by Dean E. A. Birge as fol- 
lows: 

I. Disciplinary 

1. A foreign language offers a definite study, with 
long-tested and well-established methods. Les- 
sons are definite, and methods definite. The 
student knows what he has to do, how he must 
do it, and when he has done it. The teacher 
knows how much to assign, and can test imme- 
diately and with precision the amount and qual- 
ity of the student's work. 

2. It demands preeminently constant, close, and ac- 
curate work, and is therefore a peculiarly ef- 
ficient means of education. 

3. It demands that the student hold closely in mind 
a considerable (but not unreasonable) number 
of facts and principles and apply them exactly 
in numerous cases every day. It demands 
memory, accuracy, and precision in a way which 




Leadership qualities tested 



Carleton College 




Learning via serving 



Carleton 




Making hygiene attractive Carleton 

Rivaling the disciplinary value of compulsory languages 



Case for Foreign Languages 305 

is not true to the same extent of any other 
study. 

4. It requires the student to direct his attention, 
consciously, to the basic facts of language. 
This comes at a time in his education when his 
knowledge of the similar facts of the vernacu- 
lar has become in large measure subconscious. 

5. It is usually given in continuous courses of two 
or more years, and in this respect has an advan- 
tage over other subjects of high-school study 
as a preparation for college. 

II. Linguistic 

1. It necessarily requires a definite, precise, and 
discriminating use of words. Students resent 
this when required in the vernacular, but ac- 
cept it as a matter of course in foreign lan- 
guages. 

2. It necessitates attention to accuracy of enuncia- 
tion and correct differentiation of sounds. 

3. Learning even the elements of a foreign lan- 
guage, the student gains a wholly new view of 
the nature and capacities of language. 

4. For these and other reasons it is a most im- 
portant instrument of training in the use of 
the vernacular. 

5. The study of one foreign language affords a 
basis for the study of any other one. 

III. Literary 

1. It gives a fresh view of literature, and one 
that cannot be gained from similar study of the 
vernacular alone. 

2. It deals with a limited amount of reading of 
acknowledged literary excellence. 

3. It gives the student capable of such training 
practice in the nice use of words, which can- 
not be reached as directly and quickly in any 
other way. 



3o6 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

4. Even a two years' course of foreign language, 
well taught in a high school, gives a new point 
of view from which to see English literature. 

IV. Moral 

1. The student who attempts in high school a 
course in foreign language is undertaking a 
longer and more important piece of intellectual 
work than he has attempted before. The com- 
pletion of such an attempt is the best kind of 
moral preparation for success in the continuous 
work of the four years of college. 

2. It makes for culture and enlightenment by 
bringing the high-school student into direct con- 
tact with the words and thoughts of men of 
other countries and times. 

3. It develops sympathy and understanding for 
some fundamental aspects of life and thought 
of foreign peoples, and so contributes to civiliza- 
tion. 

Colleges contemplating a survey of their foreign-language 
situation will do well to have the foregoing declaration 
of faith tested and the above listed questions answered by 
both foreign-language and other faculties. In addition, the 
management or faculty committee may wish to ask the fol- 
lowing questions. When the University of Wisconsin an- 
swered similar questions from experience its faculty recom- 
mended a course with no required foreign language. 

1. How many students would take foreign languages if 
they were not compelled to take them? 

2. Are foreign languages as effectively taught as they 
would be if they were compelled to compete with other 
subjects for the interest of students? F. . . iV. . . 

3. How many students now elect foreign languages be- 
yond the number of hours of work which they are 
compelled to take? 

4. If it is necessary to give general foreign-language 
literary courses in English in order that advanced stu- 



Foreign Languages: Self -Survey Questions 307 

dents of foreign languages may understand, why 
should not these courses require previous work in 
German or French, and why should they not be open 
to all students ? 

5. How many students would like an opportunity to 
learn while at college to speak foreign languages ? 

6. What benefits does a student receive from a foreign 
language, who obtains in his final examination a mere 
passing mark ? . 

7. Is indifferent work or poor training in foreign lan- 
guages better discipline or better cultivation than ex- 
cellent work in another subject? Y N , , , Is 

there any reason why any subject taught in the uni- 
versity cannot be so organized and presented that the 
student will receive as much benefit from the learning 
process as from the learning process in foreign lan- 
guages ? 

8. Should any subject be taught in a university merely 
for the sake of keeping alive the teaching of that sub- 
ject in high schools ? 

9. Would it be well to offer students an opportunity to 
elect sections where they might learn to speak ? 

10. Why are there so few students in advanced courses in 
foreign languages in proportion to the very large num- 
bers who are compelled to take these courses during 
their freshman, sophomore, and later years ? 

11. If, as the engineering requirements indicate, it is felt 
by at least one college, that concentration upon one 
language is more effective before entrance, would 
there not be a similar advantage to the student after 
entrance in taking 16 units of one language rather 
than dividing two years between two languages ? 

12. What advantage is there to students who do not pur- 
sue foreign languages beyond the elementary and re- 
quired courses? In what ways do these advantages 
show in the study of other languages ? 

13. If one of the main reasons for requiring foreign lan- 
guages is that better methods have been worked out 



3o8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

for teaching foreign languages than for teaching 
other subjects, should colleges continue to require for- 
eign languages, or take steps to insure equally efficient 
instruction in other subjects both in the high schools 
and in the university ? 

14. Of what practical use to an advanced scholar in other 
subjects than foreign languages is the degree of ability 
to use foreign languages which is brought out by the 
present examinations for doctor's degrees ? 

15. Should the major professor in charge of the work of 
a candidate for a doctor's degree certify not merely 
to the ability of a student to use the foreign-lan- 
guage resources in that department, but also to the 
fact that this student has actually been making use 
of such resources? 

16. What justification is there for compelling college men 
and women to take modern and foreign languages, 
besides keeping no one knows how many other quali- 
fied students out of college, when distinguished 
leaders in all professions including college managers 
never had one of those languages? 

17. How far does actual practice show that the study of 
foreign languages produces the results defined in the 
above statement of the dean of a college of arts 
which does the teaching? 

18. Should all elementary language courses be called sub- 
freshman courses without credit, and be shifted as 
rapidly as possible to high schools ? 

Instead of compelling students to take what does not ap- 
peal to them and what will not help them unless it does ap- 
peal to them, modern education would so organize and so 
present any subject that each student taking it must, in the 
words of James Bryce, " draw sufficient mental stimulus 
and nourishment from it to make it a real factor in his edu- 
cational growth." 

" The conflict is not between letters and science," says 
Lord Bryce, " but between a large and philosophical concep- 
tion of the aims of education and that material, narrow, and 



Grading Needs to be Surveyed 309 

often vulgar view which looks only to immediate practical 
results and confounds pecuniary with educational values." 

107. Methods of Grading Students' Work 

Several new theories are gaining headway in college grad- 
ing: that there is a "normal distribution" of marks for a 
class ; that there should be more publication, especially as to 
students engaged in outside activities, of those who excel 
and those who fail ; that not even upon inquiry should stu- 
dents know their grades except when unsatisfactory; that 
all marks should be dispensed with except passed and not 
passed ; that no work is creditable unless correct or useful ; 
that the only marking worth while is the factored marking 
which discloses to each student where he can do better to- 
morrow than today. 

Conditions and not theories confront college instructors 
and managers. We have marking. What's more, mark- 
ing is here to stay. Examinations are costing a small for- 
tune every year. They cost time, worry, and earnest ef- 
fort. Before they are abolished or lengthened or shortened 
or otherwise changed, they need to be examined by ad- 
ministrative officers and faculties. With few exceptions 
surveyors will learn more from studying instructors' 
methods of marking than from studying students' marks. 

The first step, therefore, is to ascertain what the practice 
is; what basis of marking is used by each instructor — i.e., 
what weight to term work and examination — class quizzes, 
special quizzes, term papers, laboratory notes, English used, 
etc. ; how far the basis is defined by departments ; in what 
ways the grading by individual instructors is checked by col- 
leagues or superior officers; what use is made of examina- 
tion results for the benefit of individual students marked 
and for the benefit of all students in the course; what ad- 
ministrative use is made of marking by deans and president. 

What people say about their marking is far less to the 
point than are concrete evidences of marking found in stu- 
dent papers. Why should not every faculty ask a com- 
mittee or administrative officers 



3IO Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

I. To secure answers to questions given in Appendix, 

pages 364 ff . ? 
2'. To collect for a semester all formal examination 

papers ? 

3. To collect for a fortnight all informal papers, includ- 
ing daily themes ? 

4. To collect for a semester all notebooks, including 
notes on readings and classroom notes, as well as re- 
quired experiment notes, etc. ? 

5. To have answer compared with grade, point for point ? 

6. To list, for reference back to instructors, all cases 
where reviewers feel that marking was too high or 
too low? 

7. To " high spot " and " low spot " the action of in- 
structors as shown by evidences on the papers that 
opportunities to help students were or were not used ? 

8. To learn by inquiry steps taken by each instructor to 
help the whole class benefit from strong or weak 
points in student papers? 

9. To compute the cost to this college of examinations, 
including time of faculty and students ? 

10. To list changes in procedure which are shown to be 
advisable ? 

The facts for our college are infinitely more important 
than the facts for examination and grading in all colleges. 
A grade may be an index to student achievement. The 
paper or work graded, however, is an index primarily to 
student need and instructor opportunity. Where faculties 
keep their eyes on student need and instructor opportunity, 
the reading and grading of student work can hardly become 
a perfunctory bore. So easy is it for grading to become 
perfunctory that surveyors will not be surprised to find 
weaknesses like these: 

1. Plagiarism condoned or not discovered. 

2. Different standards used by the same instructor for 
the same classes. 

3. Incorrect answers receiving full credit; incomplete 



Averaging Grades, Worse than Useless 311 

answers receiving the same credit as complete an- 
swers. 

4. An average for class work, mid-semester examina- 
tions, and finals higher than any one of the three. 

5. Incorrect English accepted, including incorrect punc- 
tuation and paragraphing. 

6. Slovenly form accepted. 

7. Incorrect English and slovenly form not even noted 
by instructor. 

8. Inadequate, incomplete, unvital questions that too 
often do not deserve the time required for answering 
them. 

Two ways of surveying grades will be found to help lit- 
tle or actually to injure ; viz., the " normal curve " survey 
and the " average " survey. 

Averages and norms are as misleading and useless when 
surveying grades as when surveying instructors. A fatal 
error of this method is that it analyzes marking and not 
instructional efficiency or student need. As Superintendent 
Hughes of Sacramento recently pointed out, not even does a 
student have an average. If he begins badly and ends well, 
splitting the difference states no fact about him and omits 
the fact that both he and his instructor have gained solid 
ground. The instructor who marks one student A and the 
next student C has not given an average mark of B. If 
instructors give one 30 A's and the other 30 B's, their aver- 
age is not halfway between A and B. Averages for a class 
conceal differences within the class. Averages for a de- 
partment conceal differences within a department. Aver- 
ages for a college, even if complete, lend themselves to no 
administrative use. Finally, averages do not account for 
students who drop out. The number of students receiving 
each grade, the number failed, and the number dropped out 
are called for in term reports by several colleges. So long 
as they are used to raise and answer questions about the in- 
structor reporting them, these facts are serviceable. 

The normal curve theory of grading epitomizes the hu- 
man yearning for " a level road in a hilly country," for a 



312 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

rule, a formula, a panacea. What is simpler when con- 
fronting 50 history papers than to decide in advance that 
the normal curve shall be used: "2% excellent; 2% failed; 
23% good; 23% poor; 50% fair"? The trouble with this 
theory is that it fits the mark not to the written or spoken 
work before the faculty but to a statistical curve that never 
fitted any particular individual, class, or situation. In fact, 
while this paragraph was going through the press it was 
discovered that 7%, not 2%, should fail and 389^, not 50%, 
should be average. 

Whether " A " is too high, right, or too low should de- 
pend only on what the student has done when compared 
with what the instructor's questions or requirements call 
for. The only legitimate use for the normal curve in grad- 
ing is to make sure that throughout a term or throughout 
a college the instructors use the same standard of value for 
reading, recitation, laboratory, or library notebook examina- 
tion or for progress or attainment. It is important to 
know whether in different sections of the same subject oral 
recitation alone has twenty different values ranging from 
^% to 90%, as in one large department recently studied. 

As the unfactored, unexplained grading of a student will 
unquestionably give way to the type of character and per- 
sonality grade which is being kept by Wisconsin Library 
School, Rhode Island State College, Pratt Institute, Kansas 
State Agricultural College, etc. (see Record Aids), there 
will always remain the necessity for grading and annotating 
written work so that the student will " see himself as in a 
looking glass." 

108. Students' Written Work 

One of the most helpful courses I ever had at college was 
a course in economics in which we were required to hand in 
every day our own abstract of the text assigned for that 
day. Professor William Hill gave more attention to our 
abstracts than to our recitations. Later, when I was my- 
self an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, I gave 
four classes in political science the choice between taking 



Written Work: Useful Indexes 313 

a written examination or compiling five significant proposi- 
tions from each chapter of Bryce's Volume II on the Amer- 
ican Commonwealth. Student-like, the verdict was unani- 
mously for abstracting Bryce. They builded better than 
they knew. 

Written work furnishes several indexes important to sur- 
veyors. It indexes student need; student effort; student 
attainment; student facility; student pains; student form; 
student English ; student imagination ; student conception of 
the instructor's requirements. It also indexes, especially 
after it has been marked, similar characteristics of the in- 
structor. After college the student's success will depend 
very largely upon what he does and what he requires of 
others by way of written work. Mistakes and inadequacies 
which an instructor overlooks in written work are a far 
better index to what he is giving and what the student is 
getting than is the instructor's syllabus or the departments 
nominal plan for supervision. 

One reason why tests of written work are deprecated by 
educators is that the base has been too narrow. For ex- 
ample, in New York City where the Gary idea is being 
tried out it is manifestly unreasonable to limit the examina- 
tion of written work to the papers handed in on one occa- 
sion. It would quite as manifestly promote understanding 
of the Gary idea if written work for a term were pre- 
served and studied with respect to penmanship, care, imag- 
ination, interest, content, purposefulness, initiative, and 
progress. 

Refusal to credit work in engineering and history unless 
it is creditably expressed in English means that students do 
not leave their interest in English behind in the English 
classroom. Reference to the English department, by word 
or slip, of all history papers badly written and all students 
whose English in history classes shows need for special at- 
tention means that three factors are thinking about this im- 
portant vocational requirement: (i) the student; (2) the 
history instructor; and (3) the English instructor. Refusal 
to accept a mathematics paper that is not in presentable 



314 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

form means that students will acquire and habitually prac- 
tice the minimum essentials of proper form. On the other 
hand, colleges that accept slovenly workmanship in written 
papers accept slovenly workmanship in oral recitations and 
shift to later employers the painful and expensive task of 
correcting slovenly habits. In addition to all that it costs 
the later employer, it costs the college in reputation lost, in 
confidence lost, and in time and opportunity lost. 

Wherever surveyors seek to explain instructor relation to 
student or student relation to his opportunity they will do 
well to ask that the following types of written work be sub- 
mitted for survey analysis : 

1. All examination papers after they have been graded 
and marked. 

2. Student notebooks, including notes on readings — 
these are what later the world will call working 
papers. 

3. Informal papers submitted to instructors. 

4. Term essays. 

Regarding this source of information about student courses 
and instructor, questions like these will be asked : 

1. What written work is required? 

2. How heretofore have the results of examining writ- 
ten work been used for improving instruction or for 
helping individual students ? 

3. What concrete hints for improving instruction do the 
papers examined disclose? 

4. In what instances is incorrect work graded as correct? 

5. How much of an answer may be wrong and still re- 
ceive a passing mark? 

6. Is plagiarized or frankly borrowed material accepted ? 

7. What instances are there of incorrect English? 
What evidence is there that they have been noticed 
by the instructors? What suggestions or comments 
have been made? 

8. Are minimum essentials of good form insisted upon 
. . . ; proper margins . . . ; organization of material 



Testing Instructors' Questions 315 

. . . ; paragraphing . . . ; proper capitalization . . . and 
punctuation . . . ? Is form stressed to the neglect of 
content? Y,,, N... 
9. Has the student to say something ... or has he 
something to say . . . ; i.e., how much personality, in- 
itiative, naturalness, and interest does a student ex- 
press? 
10. Are student notebooks or working papers graded? 
F. . . N.., How often? How exactingly? 
Are all drafts of written work handed in ... or just 
the final draft . . . ? 

When written tests given to college students are com- 
pared with the importance attached to the results, the unsuit- 
ability of the test is often appalling. Even the central ex- 
amining boards sometimes miss it in their idea of minimum 
or typical essentials. Of 33 students admitted without ex- 
amination in history, only one passed the questions used by 
the College Entrance Board. Of 16 admitted without ex- 
amination, only one obtained as high a mark as 42 in ge- 
ometry, five were marked 20 and above, four between 10 
and 19, and seven o. 

Merely calling for questions that have been asked or are 
to be asked will appreciably raise the standard of question- 
ing in any college. 

Centralizing responsibility within a department — in a 
chairman or committee — for objectively reviewing each in- 
structor's questions will do much to insure proper attention 
to this problem. Often instructors in other departments, 
like a committee from allied departments, will detect lack of 
plan, pettiness, indifference, unreasonable demands, etc., 
that escape insiders. 

Whether questions test memory or power; whether they 
invite and compel or forbid exhibition of student initiative, 
naturalness, imagination, constructive power, is quickly 
apparent. For example, it is important for every college 
which is preparing teachers, to know whether questions in 
class, quizzes, and finals ask who Herbart was or ask stu- 
dents to " point out specifically how you now feel that your 



3i6 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

teaching attitude, purpose, method, emphasis, will be af- 
fected by your study of Herbart," — a la M. V. O'Shea. 

109. Lecture and Over-Lecture 

In theory the lecturer saves time for the student. In 
practice he often wastes time by giving the student less in an 
hour than could be obtained by reading. In theory the lec- 
turer illuminates the subject with results of research and 
personal experience. In practice the lecturer often absorbs 
more light than he reflects. In theory the lecture is not 
only fitted to students but is intended to stimulate and in- 
form students. In practice the lecture often dulls the stu- 
dent's sensibilities and inhibits the desire to question, read, 
or think. 

To a greater extent than has ever yet been tried it is pos- 
sible for lecturers to mimeograph their lectures for distribu- 
tion among students and thus release time for finding out 
each student's difficulties and abilities; teaching students 
how to study; reviewing notes; encouraging independent 
thinking. 

Wherever students have been questioned, whether as 
undergraduates or as alumni, — i.e., at Chicago and Wis- 
consin, — they report serious criticisms of the quantity and 
quality of lecturing. Every faculty member can profitably 
ask regarding his own lectures : 

1. Which courses have I given this year substantially as 
given once, twice, or five times before? 

2. If I read notes, do I also study my students? F. . . 
N . . , How do I test their benefits received ? 

3. How many and which students in each class seem un- 
responsive to my lecturing? What chances to re- 
spond do I offer? 

4. How carefully do I prepare each lecture? 

5. Could I sell these lectures to a scientific journal? 
F... iV... 

6. Could I hold a body of alumni or of professional col- 
leagues by these same lectures? F. . . N . , , 



Individual Instruction S 1 7 

7. How far and how successfully do I attempt to utilize 
the experience, observations, and other studies of stu- 
dents or myself? 

A personal experience with one substitute for lecturing is 
relevant here. At the University of Pennsylvania several 
sections took a course entitled " Practical Politics," which be- 
gan with the issues of the national campaign for President 
in 1900. Campaign textbooks and party papers were read 
and discussed and clippings classified. Bryce's American 
Commonwealth^ second volume, was then intensively 
studied. One senior section clearly had insufficient back- 
ground in economics and politics. I asked the dean if in- 
stead of meeting them and alternately lecturing and quiz- 
zing I might deal with members individually and try to in- 
terest them in the basic literature of economics and political 
science or, at least, in using their own minds when thinking 
about public questions. Permission was given and an- 
nouncement made that instead of meeting three times a 
week as heretofore we should meet once in two weeks for 
class sessions but that I would be in our room at each 
scheduled hour for personal conference and informal dis- 
cussion. We then took up, one man at a time, his present 
interest; his past reading; what he was going to do after 
graduating, etc. One prospective journalist started with 
Bemis' Monopolies. The class funny man started with 
Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. Another who in- 
sisted he never had been interested in anything finally de- 
veloped an interest in postal savings banks because of a 
prospective trip to England. 

Two results were gratifying. A much greater amount of 
reading was done than could have been required; and the 
regular attendance during the five voluntary conference 
hours was higher than earlier when attendance was com- 
pulsory. Incidentally the instructor worked harder, cov- 
ered more ground, hit more marks, answered more ques- 
tions, than in many terms of lecturing. Instructors teach 
more by stimulating than by anticipating questions. 



3i8 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

no. Specialization and Overspecialization 
Three phases of overspecialization are general: 

1. By student in selecting work. 

2. By instructor in presenting material. 

3. By departments in course of study. 

The sections on correlation, course of study, and research 
suggest problems for self -surveyors. The short cut is to 
watch what happens to students and to see what means of 
testing results are officially employed. 

III. The Point System of Improving Scholarship 

No college is without a minimum quality of work which 
it will accept. The nominal minimum varies. The actual 
minimum varies still more. Some institutions have not the 
heart to dismiss any student, whatever his scholarship, so 
long as he does not burn down the college buildings or play 
jokes on instructors. 

Having established the required passing mark colleges 
find that many students are entirely satisfied so long as their 
work permits them to remain. They will do the least pos- 
sible amount of work of the poorest possible quality. No 
college wants to have a large percentage of these " border " 
men. Hence various devices to force up the standard. 
Raising the standard of admission, of athletics and other 
outside activities is one method. The point system or honor 
system is another. This means that in addition to a min- 
imum number of passing grades or credits it is necessary 
for students to have a certain percentage of honor points 
above mere passing. 

Counting ten A's as more than the equivalent of ten C's 
will be universally approved. Refusing to graduate a stu- 
dent who has failed to secure an average better than 
" passed " will raise protests not only from student victims 
of their own neglect or inability but also from parents, out- 
side friends, and in the case of state institutions from offi- 
cial boards of visitors and legislatures. The Wisconsin 
board of official visitors protested that it was inconsistent 



Point System in Scholarship 319 

to mark a student " passed " — i.e., satisfactory in credits 
totalling the minimum required for graduation — and then 
refuse graduation because the student had not done better 
than satisfactory work. It may prove easier to eliminate 
such students during a course than to refuse them gradua- 
tion. 

Use of the point system to stimulate competition for 
recognition among students and among fraternities, between 
sexes, etc., will go on independently of the decision any col- 
lege makes as to actually refusing graduation, if the points 
do not exceed the credits earned by eight or twenty. 

Dean Jones of Yale reported in 19 16 that the committee 
on sophomore class administration regarded as beneficial the 
" system of quality credits," and recommended that warn- 
ings be issued to all men failing to earn eleven quality 
credits. 

At Miami University average ability in a subject by stu- 
dents of recent years is taken as the base. For exceeding 
that average grades of A and B are given ; for falling below 
it up to 20% the grade of D is given; all other grades of 
partial or complete failure are reckoned as zero in all com- 
parative statements. 

The purpose in taking average ability is to avoid the 
former system, which Miami said " was to predicate a 
standard of absolute perfection and rate down from that 
point, . . . which system is difficult of application since 
the standard is of itself impossible and even the approxima- 
tion of it depends upon many variable factors." The 
weighting of grades by Miami is this : 

Hours of A count each 130% 
Hours of B count each 115% 
Hours of C count each 100% 
Hours of D count each 80% 
Other hours o, no credit be- 
ing given at all for unsatis- 
factory work 

Please note that average ability at Miami means average 
grades earned. 



320 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 
112. Segregation of Sexes in Certain Courses 

That men and women should have separate dormitories 
and so far as practicable should lodge in separate private 
houses, is an agreed-upon minimum essential of college man- 
agement. That it is not necessary to segregate men and 
women in dining rooms is similarly agreed. Whether if 
financially possible it is better to have sexes in separate 
classes for undergraduate work is still an open question 
in many quarters. 

Whether a small college or a tax-supported college should 
or should not segregate the sexes is not only unsettled but 
is a profitless question, because nothing is clearer than that 
this country refuses to consider working such educational 
plants at less than their maximum capacity. Our genera- 
tion refuses to deny women education simply because mix- 
ing them with men may theoretically be less advantageous 
to them and to the men than separate instruction. 

Because we have rejected segregation so far as attend- 
ance at most private colleges is concerned and at practically 
every publicly supported institution, as in every high school 
where city funds do not permit equal facilities for both 
sexes, is no reason why segregation should not be adopted 
within a college wherever separation of sexes will benefit 
men and women alike or either of them. 

Nobody expects a coeducational institution to have mixed 
classes in gymnasium work. Only now and then does any 
one suggest mixed classes in sex hygiene. No serious ob- 
jection will be raised to experiments which will answer 
several questions now troubling students of college instruc- 
tion : 

1. Is it true, as many teachers of English maintain, that 
men students are so self-conscious in English courses 
that they avoid such courses rather than exhibit to 
women students their efforts to improve self-expres- 
sion? y... A^... /... 

2. Is it true that for similar reasons women evade 
classes where success depends upon discussion, as in 




Sex segregation via iiitcrcsl scKrcKi'li"" 



( ";ililoriii;i 



Coeducation perm lis sex segregation too 



How Certain Courses Affect Sexes 321 

economics, political science, sociology? F... 
iV... f . . . How men and women elect subjects 
can easily be learned. Whether their reason for 
evading subjects is the presence of the other sex can 
be learned partially by comparing electives in educa- 
tional and coeducational institutions, but best of all 
by experimentation within each college. 
3. Is it possible that even where in a large lecture sec- 
tion sexes are advantageously combined they would 
be more profitably quizzed on these lectures in sepa- 
rate sections? 

113. The Junior College 

Two different conditions are being called junior college : 
a segregated college of under classmen within a college or 
university which for administrative and instructional pur- 
poses draws a line between the comparative immaturity of 
freshmen and sophomores, and comparative maturity of 
juniors and seniors; secondly, courses in local high schools 
scattered throughout a state which offer continuation in- 
struction of college grade. 

After learning whether a college will, with or without ex- 
amination, accept work of college grade done in high 
schools, several other questions will be asked : 

1. Do all high schools know that such work will be ac- 
cepted? y... A/"... 

2. Which high and preparatory schools can, with reason- 
able effort and expense, extend high-school work one 
half year or a year? 

3. Will more students go to college if part of their work 
can be done at home high schools without expense 
for tuition and living? 

4. Will the total tuition obtainable by colleges be in- 
creased or decreased if they make it easy for students 
to secure a degree in less than four years of resi- 
dence ? 

5. Would it extend the radius from which students come 



322 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

to college if for introductory college courses there 
could be three or ten or twenty centers in a state ? 

6. Provided students pass satisfactorily the test of the 
college itself as to college-grade work done in high 
school, what if any complications will such students 
cause in college organization? 

7. Would students be inclined to stay on in high school 
even when sure they could not finish a college course, 
if credits beyond the high-school courses were recog- 
nized by colleges and universities so that these stu- 
dents could think and speak of themselves as having 
had two or eight or twelve college credits? 

8. Would it be fair to taxpayers for state universities 
to encourage junior colleges by declining to give cer- 
tain elementary work or by offering inducements to 
have work taken in high schools or small colleges ? 

9. If colleges admit from high schools upon examina- 
tion, will history repeat itself and call upon colleges 
to accept without examination all students from ac- 
credited schools having accredited college work? 

The division of a particular college into junior college 
and senior college is being urged as a protection to both 
groups. Where such separation is not made, it is often 
felt that upper classmen suffer from contact with less ma- 
ture lower classmen and the necessary adaptation of instruc- 
tion to less mature minds. At the same time it is feared 
that lower classmen are given less drilling than they need 
and are introduced too abruptly to the freedom of lecture 
courses and the self -responsibility that are felt to be neces- 
sary characteristics of upper-class instruction. What, if 
any, differences there are in instructional methods between 
upper-class and lower-class groups, what if any differences 
are provided in the catalog, and how rigidly they are ad- 
hered to, are questions for surveyors. 

For a small college there are these practical questions : 

I. Will the small private college accept the position of 
drillmaster and trainer for under classmen with the 



Junior College Problems 323 

expectation of sending advance students on to the 
state university or other central university ? F . . . 
N.,. 

2. Will universities encourage students to take the 
junior college work before coming to the university 
and recognize such work given by a small college? 

y... iv... 

3. Is it feasible for both small college and university to 
have the latter give a degree, Master or Bachelor, in 
behalf "of Hamilton College and Cornell Univer- 
sity/' or "of Grinnell College and University of 
Iowa '* ; i.e., can a plan be worked out by which both 
the small college and university will recognize the stu- 
dent who has done two years' work in Beloit and two 
years' work at the state university as an alumnus of 
both institutions? F. . . AT. . . 

" In the matter of correlation of private colleges to the State 
University, Wisconsin colleges," according to President Evans 
of Ripon, " have been studying the problem very carefully and 
have been making a few experiments which are successful. 
The dean of each leading school in Wisconsin has accepted an 
invitation to come to Ripon College and aid us in our attempts 
to make proper correlation of courses and proper adjustment 
of undergraduate work with graduate work ; or, of pre-prof es- 
sional with professional work." 

That the junior college should be taken more seriously 
even in proposals for self -surveys will be held by many edu- 
cators. President Frank L. McVey of North Dakota 
writes : 

" The junior college question really represents a reorganiza- 
tion of higher education of the country, and a discussion should 
point out what effect it would have upon the upper years of 
the present college course and the relation of it all to the grad- 
uate school." 

My apology for not trying to develop these relations is 
that the present-day surveyor has to do primarily with going 
concerns, and secondarily with substitutes for present or- 
ganization. My personal opinion is that until faculties have 



324 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

compared what they are now trying to do with what they 
are actually accomplishing, the resort to junior colleges, ex- 
cept for reasons above indicated, may easily do more harm 
than good. 

One assumption will need constant checking after senior 
colleges divide from junior colleges; viz., that senior col- 
lege students are necessarily and without considerable ex- 
ceptions more mature than junior college students, and are 
without considerable exceptions capable of benefiting from 
instruction that does not aim to educe, discover, and help the 
individual student. 

114. Experienced Teachers for Less Experienced Students 

Miami announces that in 1916 " the beginning work in 
every department but one was given wholly or in part by 
the head of the department." Yale reports that 24 of 36 
available assistant professors and 16 of 32 professors were 
giving elementary instruction. Without assuming that 
upper-class teachers are by virtue of rank or experience 
more effective than under-class teachers with under-class 
students, every survey will want to learn who is teaching the 
supposedly neediest students. Where graduate students are 
numerous, their share of stronger professors must be com- 
pared with that of undergraduates. 

Many colleges already keep a record showing for each 
class of each instructor the number of 

Freshmen 1 . , 
Sophomores >'^<^^'' <='^^^'"^'^ 
Juniors 1 - 

Seniors /"PP^"" Passmen 
Specials ") - 

Graduates /"PP^"" classmen 

What to do with the facts is another matter calling for 
further surveying. After inquiry it may be clear that the 
faculty high lights would not teach freshmen as well as do 
lesser lights ; or it may be clear that lower classmen, upper- 
class instructors, college, and scholarship are all the losers 



Stronger Instructors for Under Classmen 325 

because high lights are marooned or self-marooned with 
upper classmen. 

If not feasible to let higher-priced high lights carry en- 
tire courses for under classmen, it may prove feasible for 
them to give introductory survey lectures, to be responsible 
for the course, or even to lecture, leaving the quizzing to 
others. ^ What is feasible and economical must be decided 
with this fact in mind, that considerably more than half 
the tuition is paid by under classmen, many of whom will 
never reach upper classes. 

President Hadley, speaking in 19 16 of ex-President 
Nichols of Dartmouth, says : ** He proposes by choice to 
teach Elementary Physics. The men who think that we 
have no more of the old type who found time both for ele- 
mentary teaching and for productive investigation may take 
comfort from an example like this." 

^15- Effects of Research upon Teaching Efficiency 

A discomfiting dilemma is confronting colleges. One 
set of distinguished educators declares that there can be no 
high-grade college teaching where faculties are not conduct- 
ing research. Another set of distinguished educators de- 
clares that only a handful of universities have the library 
equipment which makes research possible. If both beliefs 
are true, either the overwhelming majority of American col- 
leges are doomed to mediocre teaching, or else they must 
bring up their scientific equipment, including libraries, to the 
standard of California, Chicago, and Columbia. Every- 
body knows that this alternative is impossible. Therefore 
our colleges must either give up hope of efficient instruction 
or disprove the contentions that research depends upon ex- 
ceptional library facilities and that high-grade instruction 
depends upon research. 

Self-respect and self -protection alike require that the 
smaller colleges conduct the self -surveys necessary to set- 
tle on the basis of fact a question heretofore discussed on 
the basis of prestige, wealth, and theory ; viz., what is the 
effect of faculty research upon teaching efficiency ? 



326 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

So far as research is found essential to efficient teaching, 
colleges must raise the money for equipment and time neces- 
sary for research. Not much longer may research and its 
costs be dealt with indirectly and by estimates as an inci- 
dent of instruction and a reason for a smaller number of 
teaching hours. 

If desirable men leave colleges or refuse their invitations 
because research opportunities are lacking or limited, the 
sooner such losses and competitive disability are proved, 
specified, and advertised the sooner can colleges raise the 
needed money. 

Local facts, not professional opinion, must be invoked. 
Even if professional opinions are unanimous, trustees and 
donors will not be convinced without local evidence; much 
less will they be convinced when professional opinion is not 
unanimous. If President Van Hise of Wisconsin is quoted 
as saying that no one can be a first-rate teacher who is not 
a productive scholar. President Hadley of Yale will be cited 
as urging that " our colleges need all the good teachers that 
we now have, whether they are productive scholars or not." 
If the University of Iowa is cited to the effect that " in- 
structors who do not develop the tendency for research 
shall have no chance for promotion whatever," Teachers 
College, Columbia, may be cited to the effect that *' one man 
may be greatly stimulated by the opportunity to do research 
work, whereas another comes out of it with little or no 
gain." President G. Stanley Hall believes that a " college 
which fails to provide specifically for research by its instruc- 
tional staff is doomed to have mediocre teaching." Presi- 
dent King of Oberlin, who has specially studied college effi- 
ciency, insists that " some of the most mediocre teaching is 
now done by men who have done a good deal in the way of 
research." 

That there is something in the research virus which 
causes it to spread and seek to dominate, observers will 
agree. Unless its relative value is definitely ascertained, 
with conditions for guiding and controlling it, research in- 
terest will supplant teaching interest, and research ability 



How Research Affects Instruction 327 

irrespective of teaching ability will determine academic pre- 
ferment. Yale finds it necessary to announce : " No quali- 
fication is demanded more insistently of a candidate for ap- 
pointment than the qualification of a teacher." 

In the face of such frank admission as President Butler's, 
that many of the most distinguished scholars are execrable 
instructors, why the worm — the student — does not turn 
when given execrable instruction by estimable scholars is 
an important subject for study. 

In conducting self -surveys there are two sets of questions 
to be asked, — one relating to direct research products and 
easily countable research costs ; another relating to indirect 
results and costs that have not heretofore been studied even 
by the large universities. Fact questions must be separated 
from opinion questions. Among fact questions are these: 

1. How much weight is given to research — proved 
ability . . . , prospective ability . . . , when selecting 
and promoting faculty members ? 

2. Does sentiment practically compel research or ap- 
pearance of research by faculty ? F. . . A^. . . 

3. What provision is made for faculty research in col- 
lege time; i.e., is a definite allowance made; i.e., is 
need for research assigned as a reason for reducing 
hours of teaching? F. . . iV. . . 

4. Is any record called for of time given to research? 
F. . . A^. . . Is that record accurate . . ., continu- 
ous . . ., cumulative . . ., or is it occasional . . . and 
estimated . . . ? 

5. What attempt is made to record or estimate the cost 
to the college of research? Are laboratory supplies, 
special books, or other research materials charged to 
research ... or to instruction . . . ? 

6. For survey purposes would the faculty record for a 
year, a semester, or a typical week, time actually 
given to research ? 

7. So far as research means work in addition to the 
regular teaching load, does it add to ... or subtract 
from . . . teaching efficiency ? Where special provi- 



328 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

sion is made for it, does it increase ... or decrease 
. . . the instructor's interest and efficiency in teach- 
ing? 

8. What discoveries, inventions, publications, are the 
visible results of faculty research? Is a cumulative 
record kept . . . published ... of these results ? 

9. How far is the college treated as a partner or share- 
holder in the emoluments or credits of faculty re- 
search ? 

10. How extensively are students used as aids to faculty 
research? 

What colleges will do with answers to these questions need 
not concern the surveyors — certain it is that no college can 
help benefiting from having the answers before it. 

The quality of faculty research will seldom be taken up 
by self-surveyors. Any one reporting upon state-supported 
research, however, is in duty bound to examine research 
products for their quality ; i.e., for the earmarks of scholarly 
workmanship and social productiveness. For some time to 
come presidents and other college surveyors will not be free 
to ask questions about research efficiency of colleagues. 
They are, however, free to ask questions each about his own 
research. Occasionally a group may safely survey one an- 
other's products. Every faculty will benefit from taking up 
abstractly and impersonally the tests which should be ap- 
plied by scholars, wherever located, to faculty research. 
Among the elements to be tested are these : 

1. The original plan. 

2. Method pursued. 

3. Progress made compared with time spent. 

4. Workmanship during study. 

5. Workmanship of presentation. 

Only factored questions will bring helpful information 
about research. To ask if faculty research is considerable 
or valuable will bring meaningless answers. Instead, self- 
surveyors will first learn the time given to research and to 



Accounting for Research Costs 329 

other university purposes as per the schedule on page 148. 
Additional information will be needed : 

1. Time given by students or assistants to each in- 
structor's research. 

2. The cost of time paid for by the university, including 
rebates in number of weekly meetings with students 
or required hours of instruction, or other university 
duties. 

3. The cost of supplies and equipment borne by the uni- 
versity. 

4. The cost in time, supplies, equipment, etc., borne by 
the instructor, properly chargeable to the college. 

5. Corresponding facts for research work done during 
vacation periods which it would help the college to 
have done during the college year if funds permitted. 

6. Indirect measurable costs, including time known to be 
diverted from instruction. 

7. Results of research in findings ; i.e., conventions, con- 
tributions to knowledge, publications. 

8. Specific uses made of research questions, procedure 
and results for instruction of students, both those en- 
gaged in research and others. 

9. Evidences that instructors come to or remain at a col- 
lege because of research opportunities. Is provision 
specifically made for research when making up each 
instructor's time schedule or when admitting experi- 
enced instructors. to the faculty? If so, is more or 
less provision made for those instructors whose effi- 
ciency is supposed to be most in need of outside in- 
centive and aid ; viz., the younger instructors ? 

In the light of local experience it would be well for each 
college to ask each faculty member for himself and each 
department and dean for their respective jurisdictions spe- 
cific data in support of answers to the 21 questions on pages 
331 to 333. Faculty answers will disclose significant dif- 
ferences of opinion that will prompt continued self-survey- 
ing. These questions were worked out for the University 



330 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

of Wisconsin Survey by the directors, with the aid of Pro- 
fessors Henmon and Sharp of the University of Wisconsin 
and Professor S. F. McLennan of OberHn. Answers were 
received from 57 researchers and supervisors of research, 
including 18 college presidents and deans; 6 normal-school 
presidents; 22 college professors; 8 administrators in pub- 
lic service ; and 3 editors. The answers of the distinguished 
contributors to this survey symposium are not given here 
because it is vastly more important to each college to learn 
how its own faculty would answer these questions than to 
learn distant educators' beliefs. 

The need for local study and the free field for it are 
indicated by the fact that of 57 collaborators not one an- 
swered that there is any verifiable evidence as yet collected 
to show how research affects the quality of university or col- 
lege instruction. The significance of this admission is not 
weakened by the other fact that the majority of collabor- 
ators, particularly from college groups, believe teaching effi- 
ciency is increased by faculty research. 

While making self -surveys of research effects and 
methods, two facts will profitably be remembered: (i) 
unaccountable — i.e., irresponsible; i.e., unsupervised — re- 
search will show the same gaps between attempt, achieve- 
ment, and delivery as does any other human activity that is 
unaccountable, irresponsible, and unsupervised; (2) the 
more emphatically any faculty believes that research is in- 
dispensable to teaching efficiency the clearer it becomes that 
the short cut to efficiency is to watch the teaching product 
rather than to worry about the research. By insisting upon 
efficient teaching would faculties then secure research? If 
lack of opportunity for research is a reason for inefficient 
instruction, what better stratagem is there than to show 
trustees evidence that instruction is not as competent as it 
ought to be ? 

Certain it is that teaching efficiency is reduced wherever 
emphasis upon research and self -advertising tempts faculty 
members to such half -facetious cynicism as one experienced 
and influential professor writes: " If I were young again, 






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A Research Symposium 331 

and if I were starting in to make a place for myself in uni- 
versity work, and if, moreover, I had no conscience, I would 
neglect my teaching absolutely and would cultivate those in 
authority, get up some fake scientific treatise, keep off the 
campus, and pose as a great educator. My doctor's thesis 
would be on the topic : ' Families which keep cats are likely 
to have many children.' " 

Twenty-one Factored Questions 

as to 

Effect of Research upon Teaching Efficiency 

1. What verifiable evidence has been collected to show how 
research affects quality of university or college instruc- 
tion? 

2. Does research by an instructor improve his teaching (a) 
in other subjects than that in which his research is con- 
ducted, (b) in that subject? 

3. Does research affect method of instruction and command 
of subject matter equally and similarly; if differently, 
in what respects? 

4. Which improves the efficiency of teaching more, (a) the 
research which an instructor conducts alone, (b) re- 
search in which he is assisted by his students, or (c) re- 
search by his students under his supervision ? 

5. Which benefits the student more, (a) helping the in- 
structor conduct the latter's research, or (b) being 
helped by the instructor to conduct the student's re- 
search ? 

6. Which is the more important to the student, (a) the new 
knowledge gained by research, (b) the technique of 
investigation that he develops, or (c) the effect upon his 
future ability to teach? 

7. What effect has an instructor's research into a given sub- 
ject upon his enthusiasm (a) for teaching the result of 
his investigation, (b) for teaching subjects related to 
but lying outside of his special investigation, (c) for 
teaching freshman and sophomore classes, (d) for teach- 
ing junior and senior classes, (e) for teaching graduate 
classes, (f) for teaching per se as distinguished from 
investigation ? 



332 Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

8. What difference is there in the effect upon an investi- 
gator's teaching abihty whether the knowledge sought is 

(a) new to his field, or (b) is merely new to himself? 

9. Which is more valuable to the student, (a) to conduct 
an extended study in some narrow field, or (b) to help 
investigations in several fields? 

10. Would it be desirable to waive the requirement of a 
dissertation, and insist upon a wider knowledge of the 
subject in which a degree is given (a) for a master's de- 
gree, (b) for a doctor's degree? 

11. What difference is there in the effect upon a researcher's 
teaching ability whether the increment he adds to human 
knowledge is in the form (a) of heretofore undiscov- 
ered truth, or (b) of heretofore undiscovered or unex- 
plained method of applying truth? 

12. Is teaching helped more, equally, or less (a) by an in- 
structor's search for something immediately useful, or 

(b) by a search for something that would have value 
only because it was " some new truth " ? 

13. Would a study of the particular problems involved in a 
university's instruction react as favorably upon teaching 
ability as the study of problems not connected with uni- 
versity instruction ; i.e., would research into how to teach 
chemistry most effectively be as serviceable as the search 
for a new formula? 

14. In what ways is instruction affected by the search for a 
new element, a new serum, a new principle of taxation, 
a new fact about Napoleon, or a new star, as it would 
not be affected by search for undiscovered possibilities 
of students in the researcher's class, difficulties which 
confront individual students, and opportunities to help 
such students? 

15. To what extent is the stimulating effect of research due 
to professional recognition? 

16. Would research into methods and results of instruction, 
courses of study, etc., within chemistry or English de- 
partments have as beneficial an effect upon instructors 
in chemistry or English as upon instructors in depart- 
ments of education? 

17. In what ways and for what reasons is research less nec- 
essary for vitalizing instruction in elementary, high, and 
normal schools than for vitalizing university instruction ? 



A Research Symposium 333 

18. Is the college or university which fails to provide spe- 
cifically for research by its instructional staff doomed to 
have mediocre teaching? 

19. What evidence is there that American scholarship among 
instructors has been more productive, man for man, in 
a given university or given subject since the development 
of so-called graduate work? 

20. What evidence is there that the same instructors will do 
more productive research work if they teach 6 hours a 
week than they would do if teaching 15 hours a week? 

21. How far and in what ways does administrative work by 
instructors have a stimulating or broadening effect upon 
their teaching, similar to the effect generally attributed 
to research? 

For Questions or Notes by the Reader 



IX 

RELATION WITH COLLEGE COMMUNITIES 

1 1 6. The Home Town 

nEED COLLEGE and Its City-wide Campus is the leg- 
xV end of a chart showing five different relations between 
that college and the city of Portland. The chart is headed : 
" Has Reed College Reached Your Home? Study this map. 
Make inquiries." Five centers are charted, showing four 
ways in which a college works for a college town : 

1. Extension courses. 

2. Community service by Reed students. 

3. Addresses by Reed teachers. 

4. Homes of Reed students. 

To this list might be added civic work by Reed instructors. 
The circles which show student activities for the city are 
almost as numerous as those showing residences of students. 

In November, 1916, an instructor of Mount Holyoke ad- 
dressed chambers of commerce on the relation of the college 
to its city, South Hadley. As the outcome it was agreed 
that the class in economics would work with the local cham- 
ber in preparing a description of the town which would serve 
as a high-school textbook in civics. 

At the alumni banquet celebrating the fiftieth anniversary 
of Vassar, Miss Evelyn B. Hartridge discussed the college 
and city as follows : 

" President Dabney of the University of Cincinnati says 
that * Society is a real thing on its own account, with a plan 
of its own, a life of its own, principles of its own, and func- 
tions of its own different from and more important than 
any of its parts.' He says further that we are beginning 
to realize that the chief end of education is not the develop- 
ment of intellectual power merely, but is also the forma- 
tion of character trained and habituated to think in terms 
of social obligation. I doubt if any real contributor to 
the educative forces of the world ever thought that the 

334 



Colleges and College Towns 335 

chief end of education was the development of intellectual 
power merely, but I admit much truth in the statement 
that its end should be the formation of character trained 
and habituated to think in terms of social obligation. 

" Now how can a college better prepare a student for 
her place in the community after graduation than by giv- 
ing her, in connection with her studies, practical knowl- 
edge of community life before graduation? And what 
community life can be more easily studied by her than the 
community in which she is living before graduation? If 
the gospel of the age is service, she must have her appren- 
ticeship. On the other hand, if she is to have courses in 
chemistry, in economics, in sociology, etc., she can well 
use the neighboring community for her laboratory. 

" Would your chemistry be more or less interesting to 
you if you were helping your instructor to analyze and 
test samples submitted by the city, the results to be of 
practical value? 

" Would your work in social science be more or less 
valuable if you were cooperating, under supervision, with 
public institutions, such as the Juvenile Court and the de- 
partment of charities and corrections, or with private 
associations such as the Associated Charities, the Anti- 
Tuberculosis League, and the Juvenile Protective Asso- 
ciation ? 

*' Would your lessons in political science suffer if you 
covered council meetings and visited city departments; if 
you helped organize a municipal reference library; if you 
made continuous surveys of streets for cleanliness ; if you 
recognized your obligation of citizenship to Poughkeepsie, 
an obligation at least to know all her problems, desires, 
difficulties, resources ; if you organized an efficient-citizen- 
ship club which would make a complete list of the most 
advanced steps taken by municipalities in all parts of the 
country, checking off against this list steps not yet taken 
in and for Poughkeepsie and making the results available ; 
if you tendered your service to city and county officers, 
arranging for the college to supervise your work — the 
results again to be of practical value? For visiting city 
departments will tend to tone up those departments, while 
proving valuable lessons to the students of civics; and 



336 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

officers are glad to improve their work if they can count 
upon volunteer aid under intelligent supervision. 

" Would your very modem department of psychology 
object to your testing (as helpers only) backward pupils 
in the city schools rather than one another? Such work 
might lead to one of those so-called educational hospitals 
for defectives, which sometimes save children from being 
classed irrevocably with idiots and incompetents. 

"And what about your studies with your physicians 
here? Do they teach you household science, including 
house sanitation? And elementary bacteriology and 
household hygiene? If they do, could you persuade one 
of the clever members of your faculty to take five or six 
of you as helpers and start a class in Arlington or Pough- 
keepsie? It might lead to the saving of some of those 
tiny babies about whom our Miss Lathrop is so justly 
concerned. It might lead some day to the saving of some 
of your own children. 

" You have proved that you can get the cooperation of 
your instructors. I understand that on your own initia- 
tive you employed a district nurse in Arlington and that 
you now have in that connection a committee of Arlington 
people with a faculty member. You already help with 
the Day Nursery, you read to the old people in the alms- 
houses, you teach in the Sunday schools, perhaps you sing 
in the churches. I am sure that you do not fail to patron- 
ize Poughkeepsie stores and that many of you belong to 
the Consumers' League. Why not go a little further? 
Professor Lough of the New York University says that 
he is convinced that you have more knowledge than many 
girls in Poughkeepsie, that if you can persuade competent 
instructors to act with you and to count you as their aids 
you can in your extra hours organize classes in the city 
for these girls in house economics or home nursing, or 
house sanitation, or domestic art, or practical housekeep- 
ing, or home bookkeeping, or what I call a purchasing 
partner's class — teaching the members how to expend a 
salary or an income wisely with a due sense of propor- 
tion. Why not? It would be very valuable for you. 
Perhaps some day it might come to pass that in already 
existing departments these same subjects would be taught 




Which is better for higher education, road making 
or road using with roadsters ? 



Berea College 



Student-built chapel 

Learning via serving college and town 




Berea 



College Cooperates with City Schools 337 

for you. It would be no more marvelous than it was to 
us of '92 to hear that we might study economics and so- 
cialism. 

" There are several points to be remembered, however. 
One is that you cannot all of you do all of these things any 
more than you can carry courses in ancient and modern 
languages, English, history, mathematics, science, art, and 
music all at the same time. Whether regarded by you as 
laboratory work or as service in the field of citizenship, 
they must be considered with moderation and an appreci- 
ation of the fact that there are not nearly hours enough 
in any one day. Another is that in approaching munici- 
pal affairs you must have an humble spirit. You must 
realize that you will be indebted to them for a chance to 
learn citizenship at first hand. 

" As far as the matter of service is concerned you Vas- 
sar girls have already demonstrated in many ways that 
you fully understand that what you give you have." 

Dean Elmer E. Jones of the department of education of 
Northwestern University has arranged with the board of 
education of Evanston, Illinois, for university students to 
make a number of studies, to include these: 

• I. Physical survey of school buildings. 

2. School organization and administration. 

3. Investigation and analysis of the conditions revealed 
by the age-grade-progress study. 

4. Study of elimination — extent to which children drop 
out of school, at what age, in what grades, and why. 

5. Tests of the school work done by pupils. 

6. Adequacy of course of study to meet the educational 
needs of the children in the schools. 

7. The teaching staff — their education, training, and 
experience. 

8. Health work — scope, method, and results. 

9. Janitorial service — cost, quantity, and quality. 

10. Unit costs in District 75. 

11. Salaries of teachers and cost of living. 

12. Study of the educational needs of Evanston as a 
whole and the opportunities for cooperation between 



33^ Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

the different school boards in the interests of greater 
efficiency and economy in the administration of 
Evanston pubhc schools. 

In requesting such opportunity for students. Dean Jones 
wrote as follows : 

" The following are some of our problems : ( i ) We 
should like to offer inducements for mature, well-trained 
men and women to come to the University to study edu- 
cation under these favorable conditions. We should like 
to have your schools for the laboratory in which superin- 
tendents and supervisors can be wisely trained. We feel 
that the supervisory problem in education is so important 
that we should like to emphasize it by offering induce- 
ments for well-trained students to come here to engage 
in study for advanced degrees. In order to induce such 
students to take up such work with us, we hope to be able 
to offer scholarships and fellowships which may be at- 
tractive. (2) We should like to have opportunity for 
seniors in the University who meet certain standard re- 
quirements to serve as apprentices in your schools. They 
might serve as assistants to certain teachers, as helpers in 
special drills, teachers of special groups, or they might 
serve in some other capacity deemed necessary by your 
administration. This would put them in touch with your 
schools and give them an experience more valuable than 
many years of teaching without such supervision. (3) 
We should like to have opportunity for our advanced 
students in education to carry on investigations that will 
be of value to you, if properly worked out, and for which 
we can give credit as research for advanced degrees. 
(4) We should like to have the opportunity to be of serv- 
ice to you in the solution of many smaller problems which 
individual students might work out in connection with 
the various courses offered in the department. The de- 
partment of education would welcome such problems from 
your superintendent. For example, students in school 
administration could very well work out one or two prob- 
lems of an administrative character each semester which 
would involve the expenditure of a few hours each 
week. 



Gown's Responsibility for Town's Conditions 339 

" The administration of all of this work presents a con- 
siderable program and some vital difficulties. However, 
they are not insurmountable, and while the burden of such 
a program would rest upon your superintendent and his 
staff, the department of education stands ready to co- 
operate in working out the problems in a manner satisfac- 
tory to both parties." 

Municipal universities emphasize municipal services and 
are beginning to recognize the training value of community 
services that need to be rendered. Toledo University, for 
example, is voted funds by the city council for work to be 
done by the university for the council, such as investigating 
electric-light and power rates for use, including future rates 
from private companies. Cincinnati's University gives its 
students of engineering and chemistry part-time instruction 
in testing foods and building materials for the city and mak- 
ing state roads. 

The term " extension work " usually refers to extending 
college activities for the sake of extending college influence 
and benefiting communities rather than for the sake of ex- 
tending college resources for giving instruction to regular 
students. ^ This more familiar phase of extension work is 
taken up in a separate section. Extension for the sake of 
the college; for enriching and definitizing its instruction; 
for training its students and broadening its faculty, are re- 
ferred to here. 

The college buys food and other supplies. Is it doing its 
part in checking the rise in cost of living; in encouraging 
introduction of substitute supplies; in preventing the mo- 
nopoly of land and of business ; in organizing for its faculty 
and students cooperative buying and selling? 

The college pays taxes and is exempt from taxation. Is 
it using its influence to see that the taxing bodies explain to 
the public the purpose and nature of taxes; reasons for 
levying them; results secured by spending them? In a 
word, is the college itself an efficient citizen? 

The college is a heavy purchaser of transportation. Is it 
doing its part to secure an agreeable approach to the city; 



340 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

a clean, beautiful, and convenient station and courteous, ac- 
commodating service? 

College health is influenced by town health. Is the col- 
lege doing its part to secure a sanitary town and an efficient 
administration of health laws? Is it complying with a 
strict interpretation of the sanitary code? 

Civic beauty affects the drawing power of a college and 
its power to teach those drawn. Are its own grounds and 
buildings a practical demonstration of civic beauty? Are 
its classrooms a living illustration for city classrooms? 
Does the college give a culture tone ? 

Town life means normal life, up-to-date life, human need 
and human ingenuity. Does the college use these forces in 
imparting information and in developing character? 

College towns frequently misunderstand their colleges. 
Misunderstanding breeds gossip, backbiting, community 
forces that reduce student receptivity. What steps does the 
college take to remove and prevent misunderstandings and 
to reduce to the minimum the occasion for unfavorable 
town gossip about the college ? 

With few exceptions the constituency of a college is 
near by, when not local. Tone, like support, is largely 
given by the home town. What steps does the college take 
to make sure that it is the town's or near by's best which 
is given to the college? 

Has the college the courage to fit itself to its own town 
and the communities from which it draws rather than to 
" authorities " in foreign towns ? 

117. A c crediting Secondary Sch ols 

For mutual help and protection in maintaining a desired 
standard for accepting high-school or secondary graduates, 
colleges have organized several different federations which 
decide for all colleges in a federation which preparatory 
schools should be accredited. In theory this accrediting is 
based upon an examination which includes field examination 
of physical equipment and facilities, number and qualifica- 



Accrediting High Schools 341 

tions of teachers, curriculum requirements and standards of 
instruction. 

From schools accredited by a federation, students may be 
received by any self-respecting college as freely as students 
from schools intimately known to and approved by such col- 
leges. 

Whether standards of accrediting are high enough or 
whether given schools are improperly accredited can hardly 
be told by testing what happens with pupils from such 
schools. Certain colleges receive from certain high schools 
the poorest-equipped pupils only or the least ambitious or 
most unruly. The only way to ascertain whether the high 
school itself has done its part satisfactorily is to survey it. 
That, however, is rarely a question for individual colleges 
to answer, since they receive verdicts from federated 
agencies. 

Several state universities are held directly responsible in 
their states for accrediting high schools. This recognition 
from the state university is a much sought prize. Few com- 
munities are happy until their high school has received the 
stamp of approval from the university. In such states im- 
portant questions for surveyors are: 

1. What are the standards for accrediting; i.e., what 
curriculum, how many teachers, what preparation of 
teachers, what maximum of teaching hours, what min- 
imum of pupils, what specifications as to scholarship? 

2. Is there an enforcement of these standards? 

3. How many visits are paid to each high school ? How 
far apart? Of what duration? 

4. To how many classes of each instructor and to what 
portion of each period visited? 

5. What tests are applied to classroom instruction? 
What examinations of written work? What special 
questions are asked? 

6. What reports are made to the accrediting college; i.e., 
how specific and comprehensive are they ? 

7. What specific reports are made to the community, 



34^ Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

public, trustees, superintendent, principal, and teach- 
ers as to the minimum essentials for accrediting? 
During the visit? Orally or in writing? How soon 
after return to central office ? 

8. What instructions are given to inspectors ? Are they 
written ? Do they call for opinions or facts ; i.e., for 
analysis of each standard into its elements; i.e., do 
the standards consist of minimum essentials lacking 
any one of which accrediting will be withheld, plus 
provision for accrediting additional qualifications? 
Or is an average accepted in which desirable qualifi- 
cations offset undesirable conditions ? 

9. How has the accrediting institution protected itself 
against being influenced by the presence of its own 
graduates as supervisors or teachers of preparatory 
schools seeking indorsement? 

118. Relations to Secondary Schools 

The most important relations of colleges with elementary 
schools are two : 

1. Colleges prepare teachers for secondary schools. 

2. Colleges obtain students from secondary schools. 

Each of these relations presents many phases for analysis 
by surveyors. Whatever questions ought to be asked of 
normal schools or of colleges of education need also to be 
asked about the teacher-training activities of any college. 

It is not fair for colleges to ask that their certificates be 
accepted without further examination of graduates by school 
boards and state officers who certificate teachers, until col- 
leges make sure that their own standards of teacher per- 
sonality and teacher preparation are high enough to protect 
and help secondary schools. Survey questions for teacher- 
training work are needed by all private colleges. Think 
what it means that professional training is required by law 
and that even Teachers College, Columbia University, does 
not require classroom teaching before accrediting teachers ! 

What colleges do to secure students from secondary 



100% of College Constituency 343 

schools and to merit the confidence of those schools will 
generally be considered the private affair of the college and 
the secondary school. Without urging certain reasons why 
this relation is of public concern, it will suffice here to con- 
sider the relation from the standpoint of the college itself. 

College reports do not indicate that college managements 
generally hold themselves responsible for knowing each the 
main facts about every high school in its immediate terri- 
tory. Yet experience shows that most colleges draw the 
great majority of their students from their immediate 
neighborhoods, A business house confronted with this 
same situation would have a complete hst of every pre- 
paratory school for a hundred miles around, of every 
teacher in those schools, and of every pupil in the graduat- 
ing class. A business house would go further, and have a 
list of editors, ministers, leading lawyers, public officers, 
citizens with boys and girls coming on toward college age, 
and of every student within two years of college. Busi- 
ness colleges have such lists, private schools have corre- 
sponding lists. One reason why colleges do not have them 
is that without making this effort many of them have as 
many students as their resources will take care of profit- 
ably. 

Colleges will be helped if surveyors ask what steps are 
taken to secure the cream of graduates from their legiti- 
mate territory. (Colleges with special constituencies of de- 
nomination, of sex, of profession, may reasonably count 
a much larger circle as their legitimate constituency.) It is 
hardly enough that all seats are occupied. Colleges may 
legitimately work for the highest quality of student ma- 
terial. 

Thoroughgoing attempts to understand one's constituency 
will provide a deeper motive than the desire to secure stu- 
dents. After a college once recognizes, as several of them 
do, the obligation to act as torchbearer in its territory, 
and a direct obligation both to the student whom it re- 
ceives and to the parent and community that send this stu- 
dent, it cannot help taking anticipatory steps to benefit the 



344 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

prospective student. Moreover, it will become interested 
for the community's sake. 

Whether the college has fitted itself to receive the boy 
is becoming a more important question than whether the 
boy is fitted to receive what the college has to give. Col- 
leges want to know the boy's background, not merely his 
marks ; therefore they ask preparatory schools to tell about 
the boy's health, his personal characteristics, his strong and 
weak points, his leanings, the capacities which promise suc- 
cess and those which promise difficulties. 

Nor do they cut the channels of communication with the 
boy's background after he has been admitted; instead, they 
inform the parent the first week who the boy's adviser is 
and ask the parent's cooperation. Similarly, they commu- 
nicate with the principal, ask him for his assistance, and 
invite future suggestions. If the boy has difficulties, 
whether social or educational, these are reported to the prin- 
cipal, not merely because he may help the college deal with 
the boy, but because knowledge of one boy's stumbling 
at college may help the principal discover where other boys 
in his school are stumbling from preventable causes. 

Special pains are taken to inform preparatory schools of 
their graduates' success at college. Pride begets fellow- 
ship and loyalty. Preparatory schools like to have their 
boys and girls where their boys and girls have succeeded. 

Conferences are called to consider problems of mutual 
concern; experiences are exchanged; questions and com- 
plaints are frankly discussed. Conferences at the college 
are followed up by visits to the schools, not for the purpose 
of accrediting these schools or of marking them A, B, or C, 
but for the purpose of finding out where if at all condi- 
tions in preparatory schools prove the need for changes and 
improvements in the college. 

Finally, personal contact is supplemented by printed bul- 
letins. Whether these documents express and invite co- 
operation it is important for the surveyor to learn. By 
looking to preparatory schools for suggestions which will 
make colleges more serviceable and more efficient, colleges 



Extension Service to Community 345 

will find the fountains of perpetual use. To the extent that 
colleges regard themselves as judges of secondary efficiency 
and their standards as hurdles, to that extent will col- 
leges find themselves out of adjustment with the prepara- 
tory schools and the communities which colleges exist to 
help. 

119. Extension Work 

A great deal more extension work is being done by col- 
leges than is generally appreciated. A special bulletin is- 
sued by the United States Bureau of Education in 19 14 
showed that 32 institutions were giving correspondence 
courses and 35 were giving extra-mural instruction 
through special classes and through a combination of syste- 
matic lectures with local class groups. The number today 
is much greater. 

For public employees in New York City the College of 
the City of New York and New York University have for 
three years been giving special courses, not only in subjects 
that lead to a degree, but also in vocational subjects in- 
tended primarily to increase the student's value to the city. 
For example, there are engineering courses for bringing 
graduate engineers up to the latest date in road building; 
employees of the charities department have lectures and 
reading in modern philanthropy, not for credit but for wid- 
ening their working horizon ; stenotyping is taught, not for 
mental discipline, but to increase rapidly the supply of 
stenotypists. Columbia's extra-mural instruction, like its 
intra-mural work for non-collegiates, has increased by leaps 
and bounds. 

Just as normal schools are taking up extension work as 
a means of vitalizing instruction and to deepen and broaden 
their relations with the communities from which they se- 
cure their students and money, our colleges and universities 
will go in for extension work. 

The popular phase of so-called university extension will 
always be better done probably when done on a large scale, 
such as will be possible in most states only by the state uni- 



346 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

versity or, as in Massachusetts, by the state board of edu- 
cation. 

There is, however, an intensive, more personal kind of 
extension work which self -surveyors may help colleges con- 
sider. 

In absentia instruction can be given just as well by a 
professor of education or of history in a small college as 
by a professor of education or of history in a great uni- 
versity. That it can be given is maintained by an increas- 
ing number of colleges. For example, Williams will give a 
master's degree for supervised study and written work in 
a graduate's major. State universities like Iowa, North Da- 
kota, and Wisconsin are doing it. Many a graduate who 
has gone out into teaching or secretarial work will be more 
apt to continue her work in English or German or history if 
encouraged to build on the beginnings already made at her 
own college under the supervision of instructors who al- 
ready know her. Why should not small colleges build up 
this type of graduate work What is there about it which 
cannot be done just as well from Carleton College as from 
the University of Minnesota? 

Once having established this method of retaining contact 
with graduates, small colleges will find it possible to include 
former students who did not graduate and students from 
other colleges who are in the immediate neighborhood and 
feel the need of supervision over their reading and study- 
ing by some one near enough to know personally. 

Wisconsin's practice of leaving it to the individual de- 
partment whether or not it shall develop this in ab- 
sentia contact wdth credit might well be tried as a first 
step. 

Contact by correspondence will usually lead to a demand 
for closer contact through lectures and class groups. 

The University of Pennsylvania is rapidly developing an 
intensive service for teachers in population centers, which 
differs from ordinary extension work in that the courses 
given are the same courses as are given at the university. 
It is obviously easier for a university instructor to travel 



Extension Possibilities of Each College Center 347 

from Philadelphia to Scranton than for forty teachers to 
go to Philadelphia. Similarly, Columbia is giving at New- 
ark and Brooklyn courses which duplicate courses given at 
Columbia. City College is opening special courses in 
Brooklyn. Why should not this method be employed by 
practically every college? Where is there a college town 
which would not support collegiate work in one or more of 
Its factories, in its city hall, or its nearest neighboring 
town ? 

Every college will do well to make a survey of the ex- 
tension possibilities and needs of its locality : 

1. What part is for work below collegiate grade ? 
What can the college do to direct attention to these 
needs by state universities or boards of education? 

2. How many recent (within 10 years) college grad- 
uates live in the college town? 

3. How many within an hour's ride? 

4. What would it cost to circularize them in order to 
learn what the demand is for continuation courses ? 

5. What would it cost to circularize all other groups 
capable of doing collegiate work; i.e., former college 
students who did not graduate and high-school grad- 
uates who never entered college ? 

6. Into what profession groups do these totals fall ; i.e., 
how many teachers, how many lawyers, how many 
women interested in philanthropy or literary societies, 
how many faculty members ? 

7. Is there any other agency than this college capable of 
directing continuation work? F. . . N,., f . . . 

8. How much would have to be charged in order to 
make the work pay for itself; i.e., pay for all energy 
diverted from present work? 

9. Are there faculty members capable of making a suc- 
cess of such work ? F. . . N... ?.., 

10. Would collegiate grade work downtown or in the 
next town strengthen ... or weaken . . . work at the 
college ? 

11. Is it out of the question to organize late afternoon 



34^ Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

or evening courses in the college or downtown in a 
bank or city hall? F. . . iV. . . f . . . 

In few instances will it be better for a community to 
have work of high-school or elementary grade done by 
the college instead of by the public schools. Popular lec- 
turing frequently hurts more than it helps the college lec- 
turer. 

It is probably better for colleges to use their efforts in the 
interest of central state-directed extension work of second- 
ary and elementary grades, unless they happen to be rich 
enough to organize this work separately. Few college in- 
structors will ever be able to straddle both unsystematic 
or systematic extension work of elementary grade and work 
at college. Where this is being tried surveyors should test 
both kinds of work. 

120. Municipal Universities 

If universities came free, every city would want its own 
municipal college or university — for its boys and girls, for 
the advertising, for business reasons, for extension work, 
for the indirect benefits expected. 

If universities could be obtained from rich men or re- 
ligious bodies for the asking, the boost clubs and chambers 
of commerce of all cities in the country would try to se- 
cure this attraction. Since, however, it costs money, lots 
of money, to start and to run a municipal university, cities 
are compelled to stop, look, and listen before they decide 
to tax themselves for building and maintaining their own 
local institutions of higher learning. 

Because municipal universities are classified with schools, 
it behooves the public schools of all cities to wonder if 
there is school money enough to go round to elementary 
schools, high schools, and municipal universities. 

Testing the efficiency of municipal universities calls for 
the same steps as are here suggested for other colleges, 
with one exception; viz., the taxpayers to whom the mu- 
nicipal school must account require more definite evidence 



Municipal Universities 349 

oftener than do state universities or private colleges. A 
municipal university cannot thrive on the argument that it 
helps society or posterity or children of talent and ambition. 
It must prove that it helps the whole city which supports it, 
including those who do not attend its regular or extension 
classes. 

Thus we find Toledo's university making reports for the 
council, keeping strict account of time given by the faculty 
to municipal research and other municipal purposes, and 
keeping further cumulative record of all ways in which it has 
helped Toledo. 

Cincinnati's president reports not merely to his board of 
trustees about the university but also to the people of 
Cincinnati about The Service of the University to the 
City, which records divers kinds of service to the whole 
public. 

Municipal universities must be model budget makers, 
model tax spenders, model stewards, model publicity agents, 
model champions of the public's right to information that 
enlightens. Only blind alleys of popular distrust and event- 
ual popular repudiation lie ahead for municipal universities 
which fail either to take their publics frankly and fully into 
their confidence, or to do such work for the whole com- 
munity as when rendered and described will make the whole 
community wish to have that work continued. Asking for 
$164,000 increase over last year in a total of $758,000, 
without one syllable of explanation, as did New York's 
City College in 191 6, will bring the municipal university to 
a short turn, not because it owes any more to its supporters 
than do other colleges and universities, but because the 
people who support it are near at hand and are compelled 
yearly to consider the alternatives presented to them for 
spending their taxes. 

Given service such as several municipal universities are 
rendering to their communities and given, secondly, the 
conviction voiced as follows by Dean E. G. Woodbridge of 
Columbia University's faculty of political science, it is prob- 
able that within a generation every city of 100,000 or over 



350 Self 'Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

in the United States will have a privately or publicly sup- 
ported municipal college or university : 

"The university should be a place to which resort 
not only those who seek degrees, but also those who 
seek enlightenment, encouragement, and inspiration. 
There should be found the youngster who needs in- 
struction, the men and women of society, those busied 
with affairs, the writer, the publicist, the statesman, 
the men of the professions, the inquisitive wanderer, 
who may find in the university the best which its or- 
ganized effort in the pursuit of the best can afford. 

" With such a clientele the university should be stim- 
ulated to achieve what it can never achieve by helping 
the immature to secure degrees." 

An impecunious municipal university will be an anemic 
disappointment. The kind thing, therefore, to every city 
which is moved by valid reasons for having a municipal 
university is to postpone action until after the city's ability 
to support it has been investigated. This procedure was 
followed in Dayton, Ohio, in 191 7. The mere statement 
of the advantages of a municipal university led influential 
business men to demand its immediate establishment. The 
Dayton Bureau of Research advised examination first; was 
retained to make a hurried study ; prepared a succinct report 
of 36 pages under eight headings : 

Summary of Findings 

The Municipal University 

Colleges and Departments 

Enrollment Probabilities 

Financing a University 

College Facilities in the Miami Valley 

The Junior College 

An Alternative Program 

The school committee of the board of trustees of the Dayton 
Bureau of Research believe 



Look before Starting a University 351 

" That as a charge upon the community a municipal 
university is not at this time considered desirable, but 
with sufficient endowment the matter would be opened 
for discussion from a new angle, as many of the pres- 
ent objections would be eliminated." 

The summary of findings listed 

1. Dayton's exceptional facilities for university work 
along technical, university, and governmental lines. 

2. Functions which a municipal university might per- 
form. 

3. Reasons for not adding another small and weak col- 
lege to Ohio's list. 

4. Other present unsatisfied needs which would compete 
with the university for consideration, such as flood 
prevention, city planning, elimination of grade cross- 
ings, parks and playgrounds, sewage disposal, new 
city hall, central police and fire stations, city abattoir, 
the public schools in nearly every phase of their work. 

As an alternative to establishing at once a municipal uni- 
versity the Dayton bureau recommended : 

a. Improvement of existing schools. 

b. Reorganization for better vocational training. 

c. Encouragement and extension of cooperative courses. 

d. Study of the junior high school advantages. 

e. Establishment of a junior college. 

f . Cooperation with Cincinnati's university. 

g. A study of normal-school needs. 

The report itself may be secured by addressing the Dayton 
Bureau of Research, Dayton, Ohio. 

How naturally one's idea of accountability and publicity 
adapts itself to the source of support is illustrated by the 
recent action of the Municipal University of Akron, in sub- 
stituting for a formal annual report a series of bimonthly 
bulletins. 



352 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

The first short message was 12 pages — 5 J4 x7M» Feb- 
ruary, 1917. A pink sHp announced: 

" The directors of the Municipal University believe 
that the citizens of Akron should at all times be in- 
formed regarding affairs of their university. They 
are, therefore, adopting the plan of reporting several 
times annually to the people. . . . Any citizen may 
receive these bulletins, etc." 

Taxpayers are shown graphically how the Municipal Uni- 
versity has increased in numbers and has decreased in per 
student cost. The last page is given to " needs and aims " 
and begins: 

" Indications point to a strong desire on the part of 
Akron citizens to be allowed to share personally in the 
benefits of the university. The demand for evening- 
class work has surpassed all expectations. . . . Espe- 
cially encouraging is the cooperation of Akron's indus- 
tries. ..." 

The second bulletin listed the service rendered by the 
university's bureau of city test to seven different city de- 
partments, including the board of education. 

If establishing municipal universities means making 
higher education community-minded, perhaps the municipal 
university will become the benefactor of all higher educa- 
tion. 

121. Colleges and Central Boards of Education 

What colleges do for and to society is so many sided 
and so vital that society cannot afford to ignore its re- 
sponsibility for minimizing dangers and maximizing bene- 
fits from higher education. 

Isolation for colleges is becoming impossible. False ad- 
vertising by one college not only injures those upon whom 




University of Cincinnati 

One way to find what Dean Schneider calls "the yellow streak" in future 
engineers "Coop." students in real foundries and shops 




Cincinnati 



Municipal university uses factories 



Central Boards of Education 353 

it imposes but also injures every other near-by college. 
Therefore our older states require that colleges be chartered 
and that they issue annual financial reports. One or two 
states have gone farther and prohibit the giving of degrees 
by any institution that has not an endowment of $500,000 
or the equivalent in assured income. To secure facts, 
the power of visitation is given to a central supervising 
board of education. 

Where universities and normal schools are supported 
from public funds, their responsibility toward other pub- 
licly supported schools makes necessary some clearing 
house for information and study that will promote helpful 
adjustment of one educational activity with all the others. 

The current demand for central boards of education can- 
not be ignored by privately supported colleges and uni- 
versities, nor can it be blocked by ill-considered, stand-pat 
opposition of private colleges working naturally with state- 
university and normal-school officers who, perhaps natur- 
ally, resent any attempt to bring them under central super- 
vision. 

However it is accomplished, a 100% view of every 
state's educational activities is a necessity. It behooves 
self -surveyors in private and public institutions to ask them- 
selves where they, their courses, and their institutions stand 
with respect to other educational work done in their state, 
and secondly, to ask how best their state can organize for 
central supervision of education. 

The most detailed study that has yet been made of educa- 
tional opinions regarding central supervision of education 
was by Governor E. L. Philipp of Wisconsin in 19 15. 

Letters were written to college presidents, foundation 
officers, state governors, in all parts of the country, not 
merely asking them what they thought about central super- 
vision but asking one specific question after another for the 
purpose of eliciting definite answers. The correspondence 
was digested and given to newspapers. After much dis- 
cussion a central board of education was established, with 
extensive powers of inquiry and administration. 



354 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

Since even in Wisconsin governors do not go on forever, 
perhaps the shortest way to obtain this information in the 
future will be to address the Legislative Reference Library, 
Madison, Wisconsin, where undoubtedly the correspond- 
ence will be filed. A succinct published report entitled Five 
Different Reasons for a Central Board of Education for 
Wisconsin's Educational Systems, and a brief report by 
L. P. Benezet on a field study of Iowa's central board, sum- 
marize the findings. 

Unless self -surveyors are watchful, they will find them- 
selves naturally siding for or against a proposal for their 
state according to the political line-up in the legislature, or 
perhaps without study they will be influenced for or against 
it by university or normal-school officers. 

The following incident may encourage educational lead- 
ers and followers to ask for specific facts before taking 
sides : After a number of letters from educational leaders 
in different parts of the country condemning the central 
board had been read to the Wisconsin legislature, a sen- 
ator asked for a copy of the letter which had drawn out this 
opposition. This letter, written by an alumna of national 
reputation, had not only clearly invited opposition but re- 
ferred to a bill that not only was not before the legislature 
when the letters in opposition were read but had actually 
been withdrawn for amendment before it ever went to com- 
mittee ! 

122. The Effect of Foundations upon Colleges 

No American college is free from the influence of great 
foundations like the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching, (Rockefeller) General Education 
Board, and Rockefeller Foundation. 

Whether colleges want to be influenced by foundations 
is no longer the question. They are influenced and will 
continue to be influenced both directly and indirectly. 

The only open question regarding foundation influence is 
whether that influence shall be toward or away from de- 



Foundation Dangers to Education 355 

mocracy in education; toward or away from freedom and 
elasticity; toward or away from recognition of merit for 
its own sake even if it disagrees with foundations. 

To maximize foundation benefits and to minimize foun- 
dation dangers is one of the greatest single opportunities 
and duties of the American college. 

That foundation influences can be so studied, discussed, 
and directed that they will be negligibly injurious and not- 
ably beneficial is certain. It is equally certain that a laissez 
faire policy or an adulation policy or a policy of that grati- 
tude which is a lively sense of favors to come, will take from 
colleges more than foundations can put back. 

This is still a difficult question to discuss openly, for sev- 
eral reasons. Looking a gift horse in the mouth will never 
be a popular procedure — scores of our colleges have re- 
ceived gifts of money from the foundations. Looking a 
gift horse in the mouth before it has been given to us is 
particularly ungracious and embarrassing — hundreds of 
colleges hope for gifts from foundations. Again, founda- 
tion trustees include presidents of private and public col- 
leges and universities who have hosts of friends in the col- 
lege world — to question foundations ostensibly managed 
by one's friends seems hardly loyal. 

Conceding that foundations are animated by the most 
unselfish, most altruistic, highest educational and patriotic 
motives, there is nevertheless inherently in their position 
a danger to themselves and to their beneficiaries. 

Not needing money, they necessarily find it extremely 
difficult, if not impossible, to see the world as it is 
seen by those who desperately need money for their good 
work. 

Not being under pressure to make out a case, — i.e., to sell 
their goods; i.e., to convince their audience, — they instinc- 
tively grow lax in desires, in scientific method, in accuracy, 
in attention, in consecutive study, in vision, and in sym- 
pathy. 

Having money to give away, they exercise an influence 
proportionate not to the money they hold or to the money 



356 Self -Surveys by Colleges and Universities 

they give away but rather to the necessities of the rest of 
the world that wants some of that money. 

It is not foundation greed for power but college poverty 
that gives to foundations influence which they cannot possess 
and colleges cannot yield without jeopardy to American edu- 
cation. 

Because of the money power they represent these great 
foundations are " good news." Not only can they afford 
to prepare their stories for the press in attractive, wide- 
margined, prettily tinted releases, but news agencies can 
afford to telegraph broadcast extracts from these releases 
and local papers can afford to print stories about them. 

When foundation benefactions are misrepresented and 
exaggerated, the harm cannot be undone by showing that 
the misrepresentation and exaggeration were by newspapers 
or school journals rather than intentional by the publicity 
agents of the foundations. 

For example, a headline reads that $100,000,000 has been 
spent by one foundation on schools — this sum is ten times 
too large. Another headline reads that a certain f oimdation 
gave colleges last year $12,435,780 — this is the total 
pledged in 15 years. An educational journal edited by a 
professor of education who is making studies for a certain 
foundation refers to ** a model teachers' home dedicated 
February 16, 19 17, the first of its kind to be built in Amer- 
ica." Hundreds of teachers' manses had earlier been built in 
America, in the South, Northwest, and Middle West. One 
hundred and forty- four in Washington under the leadership 
of State Superintendent Josephine C. Preston, 200 in Texas, 
27 in North Carolina, 75 in Oklahoma, etc. 

In these three announcements alone over a million read- 
ers are given false statements and misleading impressions. 
Can any one doubt that with these false impressions has 
gone an undue influence which prepares those million odd 
readers to ascribe a soundness of judgment and carefulness 
of statement proportionate to ability to have sound judg- 
ment? 

For purposes of self -survey concrete instances are not 



Local Effects of Foundations 357 

cited, although many exist, of foundation pressure and 
foundation influence in directions prejudicial to the interests 
of American education. To cite these instances will help 
no self -survey or. On the contrary, his problem is three- 
fold: 

1. In what respects am I, an individual college 
teacher or officer, influenced by foundations as I would 
not be influenced by the same fact or suggestion from a 
colleague, citizen, or editor ? 

2. What, if any, evidences are there that the man- 
agement of our college is giving more thought to what 
will favorably impress foundations, than to what is 
needed and wanted by our own constituency ? 

3. What, if anything, can be done to make American 
colleges and universities equal to and not subservient 
to the great foundations? 

A constructive program for increasing the effectiveness 
of foundations and for decreasing the possibility of leth- 
argy or arbitrary use of power is here tentatively suggested 
to students and managers of higher education. The rea- 
son for putting this program tentatively and in the form 
of questions is the same as for asking questions elsewhere 
instead of making assertions ; namely, to invite the reader to 
reach an independent conclusion with respect to each ques- 
tion. See Exhibit I, pages 360-361. 

Instead of discouraging interest in education, everything 
possible should be done to multiply the number of men and 
of agencies who will contribute devotion, study, and money 
to the upbuilding of our colleges and universities.^ 

Foundations as handmaidens to higher education can be 
of infinite helpfulness. Foundations as arbiters and patrons 
of higher education can and will incalculably deter and en- 
ervate. 

The shortest cut to the proper relation between higher 
education and educational foundations is a continuous, 
frank, independent self-survey by our colleges and uni- 
versities. 



Appendix 



360 Appendix 

Exhibit I. — A Constructive Program for 
and for Decreasing the Possibility of 

1 — Should all philanthropic agencies engaged in in- 
terstate philanthropy or investigation be required 
to secure national charters and be made subject 
to inspection and supervision by the national gov- 
ernment? 

a— Should such foundations be required to report an- 
nually (a) not only cash in and cash out but 
work done; (b) whether income has been spent 
or allowed to accumulate; (c) opportunities met 
and not met; (d) cost of each kind of work and 
of each important undertaking? 

S^ — Should the number, character and purposes of ap- 
plications received but not acted upon favorably 
be reported and accompanied by statement that 
all applications have been read and accounted 
for? 

4 — Should failure to read and account for all applica- 
tions be reason for a special examination and 
report by the government? 

5 — 'Should interlocking directorates be prohibited 
either within a group of foundations established 
by one donor or between independent founda- 
tions? Or, whenever donors wish to have the 
same man or men in control of several founda- 
tions, should donors be required to act under sin- 
gle charters so that the ultimate control and re- 
sponsibility will be constantly advertised? 

6 — Should foundations be prohibited from giving away 
money or services to any other organization or 
individuals, e. g., any college, civic or charitable 
agency, church, hospital, etc.; i.e., should charters 
be limited to foundations which will direct the 
spending of their own incomes and capital and 
will assume responsibility for the efficiency and 
safety of the results? 

7 — ^At least should charters be refused for the double 
service of giving away money to colleges, civic 
agencies, etc., and at the same time conducting 
general investigations in these fields? 

8 — Should all charters include provision for public ex- 
amination of foundation records subject only to 



Exhibit I: Program for Foundations 361 

Increasing the Effectiveness of Foundations 
Lethargy or Arbitrary Use of Power 

reasonable restrictions such as now control citi- 
zen inspection of governmental records? 
9 — ^In order to insure periodic comparison of work by 
foundations with the opportunities for service 
which have been presented to them and in order 
to keep the burden of proof upon the foundations 
rather than upon an unorganized, unwatchful and 
generally uninformed public, should the life of a 
charter be limited to 20 years, renewable only by 
new appeal and submission of new evidence to 
the public? 

10 — Should all findings of fact by foundations regard- 
ing public or private agencies or officers be sub- 
mitted to such agencies op officers for confirma- 
tion or modification according to the truth before 
being finally incorporated in a report for the pub- 
lic or for the governing board of the foundation? 

11 — Should the fact base of all generalizations and pro- 
posals made by foundations regarding individuals 
involved in such proposals be clearly stated to- 
gether with the proposals: how many persons and 
who were examined, how many and what records 
were examined, how long was the investigation, 
what conferences were held, etc.? 

12 — Should membership upon boards of foundations by 
officers or employees of national, state or city 
governments or bodies be prohibited on penalty 
of forfeiting the foundation charter? 

13^ — Should trustees of foundations when elected to pub- 
lic office be required to resign their trusteeships? 

14 — Should charters specifically prohibit foundations or 
officers speaking for foundations from recom- 
mending or urging the appointment of individu- 
als to public or semi-public office, such as mem- 
bership on boards of education, presidencies of 
colleges and universities, and professorships, and 
should recommendations made by foundation of- 
ficers in their individual capacities with respect 
to fields within the foundations' scope be reported 
to the trustees in writing and made a permanent 
record? 



362 Appendix 

Exhibit II 

Madison, Wis., May 22, 1914 
To the Faculty Members of the University of Wisconsin 

The inclosed questions and requests for information and suggestions 
are going today to all persons who have to do officially with instruction 
and research at the University of Wisconsin. 

Individual members of the faculty are addressed, including all posi- 
tions and including the most recent accessions to the faculty, because 
it is felt that no one else can so effectively explain and demonstrate 
the personal and social value of his subject or his department or his 
work, as can the faculty member charged with giving instruction or 
training through his work, subject and department. 

Each question calls for definite information which the State Board 
of Public Affairs feels should, in fairness to the state which supports 
the University and to the University itself, be obtained by the Uni- 
versity Survey directly from the faculty members. 

Similar information has been obtained from all who have part in 
normal school instruction in this state; and similar information will 
later be obtained from instructors in high schools, county training and 
agricultural schools. 

We particularly hope that you will take advantage of repeated in- 
vitations and of the blank pages which ask for your help in securing 
statements of fact, and suggestions not specifically called for in this set 
of questions. Will you think of these questions not as a duty but as 
an opportunity to record the essential truth about your work and 
the University so that the public cannot fail to understand? 

The only purpose in asking for the information here called for is 
to obtain facts or suggestions that will help the University and the 
State of Wisconsin when considering the numerous questions that come 
biennially before the legislature and constantly before the administra- 
tive officers of the University and the State. We ask for the informa- 
tion in order that we may use it in our report. We shall, however, 
regard as strictly confidential any part of your answer which you may 
mark confidential. Every precaution will be taken by the University 
Survey in reading and using papers returned to it so as to insure 
confidence, where confidence is requested. 

Special conferences have been held and will be held further with the 
president, the deans, chairmen of the departments and others having 
special responsibilities. 

All findings of fact will be submitted in advance of publication or of 
use for conclusion or recommendation to the departments whose work 
and needs are described. 

THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY, 

By the State Board of Public Affairs. 
Francis E. McGovern, 
Governor and Chairman State Board of Public Affairs. 

A. W. Sanborn, 
Chairman University Survey Committee, 



Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 363 

DIRECTIONS 

Note. This was written on University Survey stationery covering 
all committees, names and State Capitol photograph. Signatures were 
facsimiles. Size sheet 8J4 x lo^. 

1. Answer every part of each question. If you leave any question 

unanswered it will be necessary for us to resubmit it for your 
reply. If you cannot give the information called for, or if any 
question does not seem to apply to your work, write "I don't 
know," or " Does not apply," or equivalent. 

2. In cases where you have previously given the information called 

for in the question, if you prefer to do so, indicate the page and 
number of answer giving the information desired. 

3. In all cases, unless otherwise stated, all questions apply to the cur- 

rent University year, October, 1913, to date. 

4. Make your answers as specific as possible. Concrete illustrations 

are very much desired. Avoid generalities. 

5. Wherever available, send copies of instructions used, forms, syllabi, 

conference programs, etc. If not available, please indicate where 
they may be obtained. 

6. In most cases sufficient space for the answer' is left on the paper on 

which the question appears. If space is insufficient use blank 
sheets at the end of this set of questions. Be sure, however, that 
every answer is given the same notation as the question to which 
it applies. 

[Generous use was made of blank spaces, varying from % inch 
to 3 or 6 inches and including several blank pages. Where it is 
easy to write faculties will write. Spaces omitted here.] 

7. It is desired that in all cases replies be made without conference 

with any one else, except when it is necessary to get specific in- 
formation from an associate. In all matters calling for your 
suggestion, advice or criticism, the committee desires what you 
yourself think or believe. 

8. Suggestions or information not called for, which you consider help- 

ful, will be appreciated. 

9. Enclose your answers in the envelope supplied, and then mail direct 

to the State Board of Public Affairs, or if you prefer, deliver to 

the University's mail service. 
10. Please return your replies as soon as possible, but not later than 

June 20, 1914. 
II If you desire information regarding the Survey, or an interview, 

please address University Survey, attention of William H. Allen 

or of A. N. Farmer. 



3^4 



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Exhibit 11: Faculty Questionnaire 365 

AS TO RATING OR GRADING STUDENTS' WORK 

What rule do you follow in giving the mark of : 

Excellent 

Good 

Fair , 

Poor 

Incomplete 

Conditioned 

Failed 

Do you consider uniformity of standard in grading throughout your 
college desirable? Why? 

Do you record the presence or absence of each enrolled student at 
each session? How? 

A. Final Examinations 

1. In which of this year's courses have you not given final examina- 
tions? ^ Why not? 

2. In which have you given final examinations? 

3. How many, if any students, by course numbers, were excused 
from taking final examinations? 

4. On what condition are students excused? 

5. In giving the final grade what relative weight do you attach to 

(a) Oral recitations and quizzes 

(b) Written work during the term 

(c) Final written tests 

(d) Term thesis 

(e) Oral report on special assignments 

(f) Other (please specify) 

6. How many students have you " failed " this year 

(a) Whose " term work " was satisfactory but who failed in the 

final examination? 

(b) Whose " term work " was unsatisfactory but who passed the 

final examination? 

(c) Whose "term work" and final examinations were unsatis- 

factory in spite of earnest effort? 

(d) Of those finally failed how^ many had you warned that their 

work was likely to result in failure, unless improved? 

How long before the end of the term ? 

(e) How many students finally passed whom you warned of pos- 

sible failure ? 

(f) How many dropped out of each of your courses each 

semester before the end of the semester? 

So far as you know, please indicate why they dropped out 

7. What individual attention, either in or out of class, have you given 
to 

(a) Students doing unsatisfactory work in spite of their best 

effort ? Number ? 

(b) Lagging students who seem not to try? Number ? 

(c) Students who "pass " but seem not to try? Number ? 

(d) About how many students, out of classroom or stated meet- 



366 Appendix 



ing, have this year sought your advice and assistance as to 
studies? ; as to vocations? ; as to other per- 
sonal matters? 

(e) What has interfered with your seeing as much of your 

students as you and they need for best results ? 

(f) Do you care to suggest how the relations of instructor with 

student may be made more effective other than through 
the present student adviser system, dean of women and 
proposed dean of men? 

B. How far is " discipline '* a problem in your courses ? How many 
cases have you had this year? Please indicate the nature of each 
case and final disposition 

I. EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS 

A. Elementary education 
I. Names of elementary schools you attended 

Year 



(a) 

(b 
(c 



from 

from 


to 

to 


from 


to 



B. Secondary education 

I. Names of high schools you attended 

Year 

(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

C. College education 

I. Names of colleges you attended 

Year Degree 

(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

Date of graduation 

D. Postgraduate work, including professional studies in law, medicine, 

engineering, etc. 

Year Degree 

(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

(d) from to 

(e) from to 



2. Subj ect of master's thesis 

3. Subj ect of doctor's thesis 

Is it published? Is it in the University library?. 



Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 367 

4. special preparation or training for the work of instruction, special- 
ization, field experience, etc., which you deem of consequence in this 
relation 

5. Other research work — fields, results, how published, where avail- 
able, — so far as you wish them of record with the University Survey 

II. EXPERIENCE AS A TEACHER 

1. No. of years you taught in Rural Schools, yrs. 

2. No. years you taught in grades of Graded Schools, yrs. 

3. No. years you taught in High Schools yrs. 

4. No. years you taught in County Training Schools, yrs. 

5. No. years you taught in Normal Schools, yrs. 

Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught 

(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

6. No. years you taught in Colleges or Universities, yrs. 

Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught 

(a) from ........ to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

(d) from to , 

(e) from to 

(f ) from to 

7. No. years you taught in other schools, yrs. 

Name of Institution Dates Subjects Taught 



(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

(d) from to 

(e) from to 

(f) from to 

(g) from to 



III. EXPERIENCE AS SUPERVISOR OR ADMINISTRATOR 

No. years experience as supervisor or administrator, , as follows : 

Portion 
Subjects of Time 
Position Name of Dates Taught, Devoted 

Held School if Any to 



(a) from to 

(b) from to 

(c) from to 

(d) from to 

(e) from to 

(f) from to 

(g) from to 



Teaching 



368 Appendix 

IV. SUPERVISION OF YOUR CLASSROOM OR SEMINARY 

WORK 

A. How often has your classroom work this University year been 

observed since October, 1913 — including laboratory work, semi- 
nary, etc.? 

1. By the chairman of your department 

2. By other members of your department 

3. By representatives of the state department of public instruction 

4. By representatives of the board of visitors 

5. By others (please indicate who) 

6. By regents 

7. Who, not mentioned above, exercise supervisory authority over 

your work? 

B. State under what circumstances, by whom, when, and with what 

results, the efficiency of your classroom or seminary teaching has 
been ascertained other than by observation of classroom work 

V. ABOUT HOW MANY PERSONAL INTERVIEWS REGARD- 

ING YOUR COURSES HAVE YOU HAD THIS UNIVER- 
SITY YEAR (SINCE OCTOBER, 1913) ? 

A. With the president 

B. With the dean — upon his initiative — upon your initiative — ac- 

cidental 

C. With the instructor in charge 

D. With the chairman of your department 

E. State briefly the purposes and general results of such interviews 

VL COURSES OF STUDY 

1. In determining subject matter, emphasis, order and method of 

treatment, etc., of courses offered by you, what part is taken 
by others than yourself — by whom? 

2. Have you at present a syllabus of each course you offer? 

3. Was a copy of each submitted to the chairman of your depart- 

ment? To the instructor in charge? 

4. Has your department as such ever considered, analyzed and criti- 

cized your syllabi ? What individuals have done so ? 

5. If so, describe how this was done, when, and what specific changes 

or modifications were made by you as a result 

6. What courses are you giving for the first time this year? 

7. Which of this year's courses have you given two or more times 

before? 
Please indicate the changes you have made in them for this year 

8. State specifically what needed equipment or supplies are so de- 

ficient as to handicap you in your teaching 

9. What attempts have you made to get these since October, 1913, 

to date? 
10. What effort did you make to have them included in the budget 
estimates for 1914-1915? 



Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 369 

11. How is classroom work correlated with laboratory — shop — field 

practice work? 

12. What foreign^ languages and what other subjects are necessary 
as a prerequisite for successful work in your courses? 

VII. ABILITY OF STUDENTS TO DO WORK OF YOUR 

COURSES 

1. State specifically (illustrate when possible) to what extent, and in 

what courses, you are prevented from giving and requiring the 
kind of work you believe your students ought to do because of 

(a) immaturity which prevents them from understanding the 

subject matter 

(b) poor preparation in the fundamentals upon which your work 

is based 

(c) not knowing how to study 

(d) indifference or lack of interest 

(e) aversion to or disinclination to consecutive concentrated 

work 

(f) social diversions 

(g) outside student activities 

(h) presence of men and women in the same sections 

2. What suggestions have you 

(a) for improving the preliminary preparation — in quality or 

quantity — of students who are planning to enter your 
courses? 

(b) for adapting University work to the abilities of students 

entering as to either subject matter or to method of teach- 
ing, special examinations, reviews, study conferences, re- 
wards for excellence, penalties, etc.? 

3. What, if any, evidences do you see that students are helped too 

much, or too little, after reaching the University? 

4. Do you consider present day students more able, equally able, less 

able to do University work than those of lo years ago ? 

5. In what respects have the requirements of your work changed in 

10 years because of students' ability? 

VIIL THE FACULTY MEETING OF YOUR COLLEGE 

1. How many meetings have! you attended during the present Uni- 

versity year, 1913-1914? 

2. State specifically what part you took in the faculty meetings dur- 

ing the year 1913-1914 

3. How do you learn about the proceedings of meetings which you 

have not attended? 

4. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 

5. Indicate how these meetings could be made of greater value to you 

IX. GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL MEETINGS 

1. How many meetings have you attended since October, 1913? 

2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 



Z7^ Appendix 

3. Indicate how these meetings might be made of greater value to you 

4. Will you suggest ways in which each faculty member may most 

easily learn about the advance steps, plans and discussions of 
other departments than his own and of the other individual 
faculty members? 

5. Please describe purpose and results of any other meeting, or con- 

ferences, formal or informal, that should be recorded in this con- 
nection 

X. DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE MEETINGS FOR FAC- 
ULTY MEMBERS OF RANK OF ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 
OR HIGHER 

1. How many meetings have you attended this year? 

2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 

3. Indicate how these meetings might be made of greater value to you 

XL GENERAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY MEETINGS 

1. How many meetings have you attended this year? 

2. State specifically of what value the meetings have been to you 

3. Indicate how these general faculty meetings might be made of 

greater value to you 

4. Have you read the questions used in the study of Oberlin by the 

faculty in 1908-1909? 
Have you read the report of this study? 

5. Have you read reports on the Princeton Preceptorial method? 
Or the recent report on Bowdoin's test of this method ? 

XIL WORK TURNED OVER TO ASSISTANTS 

How many of your stated periods for meeting students have you, 
since this University year, October, 1913, to date, turned over to 

assistants? Total Recitation or Lecture. . . . Seminary 

Other. .. . How many have you failed to meet? 

Xin. SUMMER AND OTHER OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT 

1. Did you teach in the summer course last year? No. hrs. per 

week 

2. Do you think the summer course should be extended to nine 

weeks? To twelve weeks? Why? 

3. How many weeks of complete vacation did you have? 

4. How many weeks part work, part vacation? 

5. How many weeks were you employed on outside remunerative 

work? 

6. Will you care to state, for confidential uses, the total earned 

(not including extension work) in outside employment, lectures, 
writing, consulting, the last year? Total during the summer 
only? During the school year? 

7. Do you consider that outside employment helps or hinders Uni- 

versity work in your field? 



Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 371 

XIV. TIME REGULARLY REQUIRED BY UNIVERSITY WORK 
DURING THE UNIVERSITY YEAR 

I. Approximate the average number of hours per typical week de- 
voted to each of the following during the spring semester, 1914. 
In blank lines indicate any other activities so that your report 
will definitely show the demands made upon your time by the 
University 



Kinds of work 

(a) classroom work (not 

Seminary) 

(b) seminary work 

(c) conferences with your 

students 

on class room work 
on seminary work 

(d) conferences with associ- 

ates 

(e) supervision of others' 

instruction . . . _. 

(f) personal preparation for 

courses, syllabi, etc. 

(g) reading papers or theses 
(h) clerical work for your 

university work 

(i) work with student or- 
ganizations 

( j ) special university assign- 
ments other than as 
adviser, including reg- 
ular and special com- 
mittees 

(k) work as student adviser 
(1) professional reading 
other than research . . 
(m) literary work or study 
(n) research, your own, not 

students' 

(o) extension work, regular 
(p) other (please specify) 



No. hrs. 
per wk. 



Characterization or remarks 



2. Apart from the above how many hours per semester are required 
by 

(a) regular seasonal demands such as registration, term ex- 

aminations, etc. 

(b) occasional demands such as extension lectures, conversa- 

tions, etc. 

(c) civic work as a citizen of Madison 

(d) work for national societies as officer 



372 Appendix 

(e) work for national societies as member, including attendance 

at conventions, etc. 

(f) work for state societies as officer 

(g) work for state societies as member, including attendance 

at conventions, etc. 
(h) outside professional employment 

XV. UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS 

1. Name the regular committees of which you are a member (note 

if chairman) this semester, and state for each the approximate 
number of hours required per semester 

2. Name the special committees of which you have been a member 

(note if chairman) this University year, and state for each the 
approximate total number of hours required this University year 

3. Do you feel that these committee assignments help or interfere 

with your instruction work? Your research work? Your other 
administrative work? 

4. Have you suggestions as to reducing committee or clerical work 

by faculty members? 

5. How if at all would you have the work of student advisers 

changed ? 

XVI. THE "PRODUCT" OF YOUR UNIVERSITY WORK 

1. What do you believe to be the most important measure of the effi- 

ciency of University teaching? 

2. By what " product " or " results " do you feel that your University 

work should be judged? 

3. Please list typical or most gratifying products or results which 

you wish recorded among your services to productive scholar- 
ship, learning, or business or social progress that the people of 
Wisconsin ought to understand and remember 

XVII. OFFICIAL FACTORS AFFECTING YOUR EFFICIENCY 

State specifically in what ways your professional efficiency has been 
affected and how you have been helped in dealing with students, 
in method of instruction and subject matter by 

(a) the president 

(b) the dean 

(c) the chairman 

(d) the instructors in charge 

(e) university scientific societies 

(f) other official factors 

Name local, state or national scientific bodies 0^ which you are a 
member 

XVIII. RELATION TO THE STATE OF WISCONSIN 

1. Name the positions you have held in and for the state govern- 

ment, with dates 

2. Name the positions you have held in and for the government of 

the city of Madison, with dates 



Exhibit II: Faculty Questionnaire 373 

3. State specifically what you have done to acquaint yourself with 

actual conditions and needs in Wisconsin that relate to the work 
of your department 

4. Name the Wisconsin communities other than Madison which you 

have visited since June, 1913 

5. Which communities were visited in connection with your Uni- 

versity work? 

6. State in what respects, if at all, each of your courses is different 

from what it would be if given in an eastern privately supported 
institution, that is, in what respects it is modified as a result 
of your analysis of Wisconsin's social, industrial and educational 
conditions and needs or your study of the students who are in 
your classes 

XIX. DIFFICULTIES AND NEEDS 

1. Under what difficulties, if any, are you working which interfere 

with your highest efficiency as faculty member? 

2. Do you feel that faculty members are underpaid? Overpaid? 

Overworked? Underworked? Please illustrate 

3. Will you suggest ways more closely to fit pay to work or work to 

pay? 

4. What lines of University work would you like to do which your 

present program does not permit? 



XX. MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS 

1. What proportion of the written work for your classes is corrected 

by you? Are papers returned to students? How are corrected 
papers used for teaching purposes? 

2. What criticism or suggestions not covered by these questions have 

you as to improving or increasing the efficiency of your own 
work or the work of the University as a whole ? The University 
Survey desires to make this study as thorough and compre- 
hensive as possible and will v^elcome your help in formulating 
a constructive report as to University and State needs. The 
report will not be based upon opinions, but opinions and sugges- 
tions point to records and to field work which should be exam- 
ined. Statements of fact when confirmed will be used no mat- 
ter from what source derived, except as confidence is requested. 

3. Typical of points regarding which your further suggestion is in- 

vited are: Are students expected to do too little work? Are 
regular demands upon students by courses uniform? Is enough 
attention given to English in other than English courses ? What 
maximum number of hours gives best instruction results ? What 
is the best proportion of instruction to research? Where, if at 
all, are mixed classes undesirable? Is the combination of gradu- 
ates with undergraduates undesirable? Is the semester the right 
unit for courses? Do freshmen and sophomores see enough of 
the instructors of higher rank? Are library facilities adequate? 
Are student assemblies desirable? Is work of related depart- 



374 Appendix 

ments adequately correlated ? Should number of cuts be limited ? 
Should students be required to show that they have made up lost 
work? Is there enough of application of theory to actual prac- 
tice? How should entrance requirements be modified? etc., etc. 



Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 375 



Exhibit III 

Madison, Wis., Sept. 24, 1914 

Request for Cooperation 

from 

Alumni Members and Former Students 

As you know, the legislature of 1913 directed the State Board of 
Public Affairs to conduct a survey of the normal schools, high and 
county training schools and the University of Wisconsin, and to report 
facts and recommendations not later than December ist, 1914. 

The survey of the eight normal schools, A. N. Farmer, Director, has 
been completed with results that already include specialized courses 
according to the work teachers plan to do, the dropping of Latin, 
the dropping of college courses from four normal schools, a division 
of reference and research for the regents and field inspection for the 
purpose of putting into effect survey recommendations. 

The survey of the University began last April with an effort to 
answer the twelve generally worded questions on page three here- 
with. 

The letter on page two with forty pages of questions was sent to all 
members of the University instructional staff. Answers from 580 are 
now being studied and recorded under proper headings, — a veritable 
mine of fact and suggestion. 

Among special studies already made are the following: agricultural 
college and extension work by Professor Branson; use of rooms in 
University buildings; 8000 examination and term papers; extension 
division ; courses for the training of teachers ; high school inspection ; 
350 classroom exercises; Wisconsin High School; charts of organiza- 
tion; maps showing attendance, cost per hour per student, etc.; regents* 
investigations; faculty minutes; registration methods; housing lists; 
the adviser system; supervision of instruction, etc. 

Hearty cooperation has been shown by university officials including 
regents, president, deans, instructional staff and business officers. 

The Executive Committee of the Alumni Association has author- 
ized the Board of Public Affairs to state that it is the wish of the 
Executive Committee of said association that every alumnus make 
an extra effort to answer the questions submitted immediately and 
fully, so that the survey may be of the greatest possible value. 

While trying to frame questions which will call for concrete in- 
stances and in large part for checks so as to save your time, we shall 
be very glad to receive suggestion, criticism, comment or exi- 
pression of opinion on university work and needs which falls within 
one of the generally worded questions on page three. 

In justice to those who answer, and to those whose names you may 
mention, all personal statements will be regarded as strictly confidential 



'I'j^ Appendix 

and the answers will be destroyed as soon as they have been compiled 
and their results used by the University Survey. 
Advisory Committee* 

THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY, 
By the State Board of Public Affairs. 
Francis E. McGovern, 
Governor and Chairman State Board of Public Affairs. 

A. W. Sanborn, 
Chairman University Survey Committee. 

[Copy] 

To the Faculty Members of the 
University Extension Division, University of Wisconsin 

The inclosed questions and requests for information and suggestions 
are going today, with the approval of Dean L. E. Reber, to all persons 
who have to do officially with the University Extension Division. 
[Same as general letter above, page 362] 

12 QUESTIONS THE UNIVERSITY SURVEY SHOULD 

ANSWER 

These twelve questions were sent to all members of the faculty, to 
all county superintendents, to the principals of all free high schools, 
and to all editors in the State of Wisconsin. Hundreds of definite sug- 
gestions were received and are being used as guides to studies which 
should be made. Suggestions from alumni are invited. 

1. What if anything is the University of Wisconsin undertaking 

that the state as a whole does not wish it to do? 

2. What if anything is the University failing to undertake which 

the state wishes it to do ? 

3. Is the University doing well enough what it does? 

4. Is it doing inexpensively enough what it does? 

5. What parts of its work, if any, are inadequately supported? 

6. What parts of its work are out of proportion — too large, too 

small — to its program as a whole? 

7. Is the state's support of the University proportionate or dispro- 

portionate to state support of other public educational activities ? 

8. Is the University's business management — in policy, planning, 

purchasing, supervising, checking, and reporting — adequate and 
efficient ? 

9. Does the legislative policy in dealing with the University and 

other educational activities reflect adequate information? 

10. What is the University's relation with and influence upon the 

rest of the state's system of public education? 

11. What are the standards of living — social and economic — in the 

University? 

*NoTE. Nine names representing state associations of teachers; 
farmers (2); physicians; lawyers; bankers; women; labor; merchants 
and manufacturers. 



Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 377 

12. What not-yet-met needs of the state which the University might 
meet and what opportunities for retrenchment or increased 
efficiency should be reported to the next legislature? 

Alumni Answers to be Returned to the University Survey, At- 
tention of William H. Allen, Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin 



Name College Course, class or last year 

Present Address Occupation 

If you were to have your undergraduate college course again 

1. Please check whether in general you would prefer 

(a) textbook course 

(b) lecture course 

(c) course in which informal discussion by instructor and class 

predominates 

(d) In which lecture courses taken by you would you prefer not 

to have lecture courses again? 
What if any difference would you wish made in the amount and 
character of lecture work for 

(e) the junior and senior years? 

(f) the freshman and sophomore years? 

2. Written exercises prepared out of class 

(a) Would you like more or fewer than you 

had in college? 

(b) Written in class, more or fewer 

(c) Of "term papers," i. e. regular written assignments an- 

nounced early in the term, more or fewer 

3. Oral reports 

(a) Would you wish more or fewer Oral quiz? 

Would you wish more or fewer? 

4. Notebooks on lecture courses 

(a) Were your notebooks reviewed and marked by in- 

structors ? 

(b) Would you have review of them by instructors mandatory 

or optional ? 

(c) Would you have more or less emphasis than 

in your day? , 

(d) Have you found that your experience in taking classroom 

notes has helped you in your business or profession much 
little none .. .. ? 

(e) Has your college experience in taking notes on reading 

helped you much little none ? 

5. Recitations per week per subject 

(a) In general would you wish a class to meet each week 6. . . . 
S 4 3 2 1 times? 



37^ Appendix 

(b) Would you prefer a lecture course 6. . . .5. . . .4. . . .3. .. . 

2 1 times? 

(c) From what subjects would you expect better results if reci- 

tations came 6. ...5 4. ...3 2 i times? 

6. Grades 

(a) Should students know their grades? Yes No 

(b) Should examined papers be returned with grades ? Yes 

No...... 

(c) Should paper be so marked as to show the mark for each 

question? Yes No 

(d) Should papers in each subject be marked so as to show 

errors 

(i) in the form? Yes No 

(2) in English? Yes No 

. , (3) in spelling? Yes No 

(e) Was the English in your written work for other than Eng- 

lish courses noted too much too little 

enough ? 

7. Afternoon recitations 

(a) Did you recite afternoon? much little none 

(b) Did you benefit more the same or less from 

afternoon than from morning recitations? 

(c) Would you again prefer afternoon or morning 

recitations ? 

(d) Do you feel that afternoon work for freshmen and sopho- 

mores is more or less desirable than afternoon 

work for juniors and seniors? 

(e) Would you advise the University and taxpayers to provide 

rooms enough so that afternoon recitations would not be 

necessary for any undergraduates ? Yes No 

For juniors and seniors? Yes No For fresh- 
men and sophomores ? Yes No 

(f) Do you believe that the difference in benefits between after- 

noon and morning recitations is so slight that the Uni- 
versity should require classrooms to be used throughout 

the afternoon, rather than erect new buildings? Yes 

No 

8. Undergraduate working day 

(a) So far as you can recall, how many hours a day did you 

spend on college work proper in preparing for classes 
laboratory in classes total 

(b) Do you feel that students generally in your day spent too 

much enough or too little time on their 

university work? 

(c) How many hours a day on the average would you now feel 

that you should be required to spend on college work, in- 
cluding study, class time or laboratory? 

(d) Would you advise that each student be required to take work 




Two classes of teachers at Pennsylvania State College, learning how 
to teach agriculture by doing agriculture 




Do alumni advise '"practical" courses? 



Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 379 

necessary to fill out a minimum working day fitted to his 

own possibilities? Yes No 

(e) What minimum and maximum of hours required 

and permitted, would you suggest for undergraduate 
students ? 

REQUESTING SPECIFIC INSTANCES FROM THE PERSONAL 
EXPERIENCE OR OBSERVATIONS OF ALUMNI AND 
FORMER STUDENTS 

9. Courses slighted 

(a) To about how many of your courses did you give so much 

time that other courses had to be slighted? 

(b) To how many was this difference due to extra interest? 

(c) To your deficiency in that subject? 

(d) To extra requirements by the instructor? 

(e) Please cite instances 

10. Highly efficient instruction 

Please cite concrete instances especially in your freshmen and 
sophomore years. Inefficient instruction. Please cite instances 

1 1. Out-of-class help from instructors 

(a) Did you have much help little none from in- 

structors? Please cite concrete instances 

(b) Also cite instances of instructors with whom you had no 

helpful contact out of class 

12. Advisers 

(a) Was the help received by you much little none 

perfunctory personal at registration time 

only continuous cumulative 

(b) Were you helped much little or none in 

selecting your courses of study? 

(c) Much little or none regarding membership in 

students' organizations other than scientific societies? 

13. Outside student activities 

(a) Of how many societies, literary debating or 

scientific were you a member? 

(b) Would you again give more. ... the same or less 

attention to such societies ? 

(c) Since graduation do you feel that you suffered many 

few or no disadvantages because you did 

not have the right kind enough work in 

literary debating and scientific socie- 
ties? 
Please cite specific benefits or disadvantages 

(d) To what other outside activities did you give special atten- 

tion? 



380 Appendix 

(e) Did these other outside activities interfere with your col- 
lege work much little none 

If much, do you now consider such interference beneficial 
or harmful 

14. Secret societies 

(a) Of how many secret societies were you a member? 

(b) Do you feel that you benefited much little 

none 

(c) If not a member do you feel that you suffered much 

little or no disadvantages? 

(d) Do you feel that secret or Greek letter fraternities and clubs 

are more equally less harmful 

than other private limited clubs among students? 

(e) Would you have the number of secret societies decreased 

increased abolished or differently 

supervised 

(f) Please cite concrete instances of benefits, disadvantages, or 

recommendations 

15. Student government and honor system 

(a) About how many instances are known to you personally of 

dishonesty in class work, which as you now look back, 
could with reasonable care have been prevented by the fac- 
ulty? 

(b) How many cases of dishonesty did student government 

settle less equitably or less efficiently than you now be- 
lieve university officers would have settled them? 

(c) How many discipline cases were settled by university officers 

less equitably or efficiently than you now believe student 
government would have settled them ? 

(d) Would you have the honor system introduced? Yes 

No 

(e) Would you have student government continued? Yes 

No Extended? Yes No Restricted? Yes 

No 

(f) Please specify conditions or practices which you believe 

would not exist under the honor system. 

16. University extension work 

Please cite concrete instances which have come to your attention 
since graduation of what you regard as efficient or inefficient 
service given by the University Extension Division, through its 
correspondence, classes, lectures, community institutes, etc. 

17. Alumni relation to the University 

(a) Do you feel sufficiently or insufficiently informed 

, regarding university affairs? 

(b) About how many instances have there been where you felt 

the need for, and would have welcomed information from 
the University as to matters of public discussion of interest 
to you as an alumnus ? 



Exhibit III: Alumni Questionnaire 381 

(c) About how many times have you tried to secure accurate 

and complete information how many times did you 

get it not get it 

(d) About how many suggestions have you made to the Uni- 

versity ? 

(e) Did these seem to be welcomed? Yes No 

(f) On how many did you receive a report of action taken 

of favorable action taken of unfavorable 

action taken no action taken no report 

(g) What have you specifically to suggest as to extension of im- 

provement of relations between the University and its 
alumni ? 

18. Miscellaneous 

If between now and the final report of the University Survey there 
are questions of fact which you would like answered with respect to 
scope and methods of the Survey, will you give us an opportunity either 
directly or through the Alumni Association to answer such questions? 
We hope you will also use our invitation to send in suggestions even 
though they are not apparently covered in any of the generally worded 
questions or the specific questions sent herewith. 

There are a number of other questions to which, if your time permits, 
we should like to obtain concrete answers. For example, which, if 
any, courses did you take, which you now consider a waste of time? 
Which, if any, courses did you take that required practically no time 
outside of class ; would you have the number of such classes increased 
or decreased ? From which, if any, of the " pipe " or " lunch '[ or 
" snap " courses which you took, do you now feel that you substantially 
benefited? 

Are there instances of instruction which you considered efficient while 
at the University which now, as you look back upon it, you consider 
inefficient ? 

Are there other instances of instruction which you considered in- 
efficient while at the University, but which you now look back upon as 
efficient ? 

Were there specific instances when you were graded too high for the 
quality of work you did ; when you were graded too low, or where you 
felt sure others were unfairly or improperly graded? 



382 Appendix 



Exhibit IV 

Fitting State University Service to State Needs — Illustrations 
from the University of Minnesota 

Too late for inclusion in the body of our text and index, we have 
received from the University of Minnesota, in response to our 
referendum request of last winter, facts and photographs that are 
so very suggestive that we are here adding this index to them. 

While this material illustrates directly the newer ideals and meth- 
ods of stewardship toward which our state universities and normal 
schools are striving, it should be equally helpful to privately sup- 
ported or endowed institutions of learning. 

If, as educators so often say. ed-u-ca-tion means drawing out 
rather than pouring in, the services and the methods of graphically 
described service that are here referred to will suggest many ways 
in which every college can by serving help draw out, develop, and 
build the communities which furnish its students and its support. 

How Minnesota is served by its state university will always be 
a question of national interest, because Minnesota was wise enough 
to retain for education the incalculable riches of its iron and cop- 
per mines. For generations to come it will be easier for Minne- 
sota to translate its ideals of education into state-wide service than 
for any other state to do so. 

Further interest attaches to Minnesota's present vision and ac- 
tion for the reason that in 1917 President George E. Vincent re- 
signed from the richest state university to take the presidency of 
the Rockefeller Foundation, which at present has a principal of 
over one hundred and twenty-five million dollars, which for years 
to come will undoubtedly be the most active, the most praised, 
and the most criticized private foundation in the world, and which 
at present is subsidizing various kinds of educational service and 
propaganda by the University of Minnesota. 

As do the college high spots on pages 113 ff., and the twenty 
different methods of learning via doing at a sister university men- 
tioned on pages 294 ff., the services here cited indicate a nation- 
wide effort on the part of higher education to find its opportunity 
and duty in the community needs of the present and the future. 
The material sent to us in August, 1917, was addressed to Presi- 
dent Vincent by division heads in January, 1917. 

Through its bureau of cooperative research, Minnesota's college 
of education " is making an extensive survey of the achievements 
of children in 150 school systems. During the last year over 150,- 
000 tests in handwriting, spelling, reading, and language were made 
by local superintendents under university direction." The results 
of these tests are now available. 



Exhibit IV: Minnesota Photographs 383 

The teacher-training departments of high schools in Minnesota 
are being surveyed by Dean L. D. Coflfman of the college of educa- 
tion for the Rockefeller Foundation. Dean Coffman wrhes that 
he ' controls and directs the survey and is assisted by tTree grad- 
uate students," who of course are thus obtaining the best oossible 
kind of training for any field in education. " The reoo^t w^ll .n 
pear under the following heads: (i) ffistory of theTainW Z~- 

Kerf y^'charr'n^fh' ^^^ ^T'-' ^^ ^^"^^^ O) the t^Sg of 
teachers in charge of the departments: (4) the student hnHv /-r^ 

the relation of the departments to community life and co^munty 
welfare; (6) general strengths and weaknesses of the deparTments " 
of^''^T^?l,'' the Minnesota taxpayer helped in innumerabk ways 
of which the photographs here listed are the symptoms buT the 
fact of service rendered and the offer of future servTce are set 
before the people of the state by means of these and smilar pho- 
tographs. In going over the list, will the reader contiSly ask 

n^l^.w '^'!.^'' ^-^^ ^?""^^ °^ "^^"^^I school or university _ 
or for that matter, city school system -has exhausted the possi- 
bility of taking taxpayers and patrons into its confidence, of fitting 

Srn^erd? t^o^ iTLl\t^ ^"' °^ ^^^^^^ ^-^-^^-" - ^-"^ worf 

^^°director^ for farmers, agricultural extension, A. D. Wilson. 

I. Short-course equipment car, and 2, corn-testing instruction as 

wiraudie^nc':.'''^/ ?^ ^P^^'^'" ^1^^ ''^' ^' ^^^ning demonstradon 
Ttrili-nn ffk ^^^^"^ ^f", ^"^ women. 4. Meat-cutting demon- 
stration with audience of farm men and women in schoolroom, 
l^ergus Fals Minnesota, demonstrator and chart just under reolica 
frieze of Elgm marbles! 5. A farmers'-club picnic. 

"^^^don^ c°"»t^ boys and girls via farm work that needs to be 

6 Seed testing in rural school under direction of county agent 
A. L. f^orling. 7. A northern Minnesota corn-club boy's results 
bemg tested by T A. Erickson, the university's state leader of 
boys and girls' club work. 8. Rural-school teachers studying how 
to judge corn and grain by judging them. 9. State champion bread 
club of nine girls. Maple Lake, Minnesota. 10. Garden and can- 
ning club girl against a background of canned fruits and vegetables 
chart of instructions, and photographs of different breeds of milch 
^?^^' ^u' , ® .fourth winner in the state fair contest of boys' pig 
clubs — boy s pig, cared for under university direction, being over 
twice as large as father's pig, same litter. 

General extension work, Richard R. Price, director 

12. Map showing state-wide activities, 7 symbols. 13. Photo- 
graphs of letters, correspondence study work. 14. Extension class 
m electricity, Duluth. 15. Night class of 50 in banking. 16. Night 
class of 60 in business law. 17. Class of 35 in accounting, up state. 
18. Class of 20 in chemistry. 19. Short-course class of 125 men 



3^4 Appendix 

and women in merchandising. 20. Class in accounting, Minneap- 
olis. 21. Class of 20 men and women in mechanical drawing. 22. 
Class of 30 in show-card writing, merchandising short course. 
23. Class of 40 in Spanish. 24. Class of 25 in rhetoric. 25. Ama- 
teur theatricals in an up-state town, university's lyceum service. 
26. Orchestra at Northfield. 27. Set of plays lent in the dramatic 
service. 28. Typical posters of university week, 6-day program. 

29. Traveling set of slides used in furthering visual instruction. 

30. Municipal Reference Bureau, photograph of files to indicate 
available material. 



Index 



INDEX 



Absences, recorded, 50; students 
dropped for unexplained, 114. 

Academic freedom, and written 
agreements, 49 ; protected by rec- 
ord of absences, 52; questions, 

Accounts, see topics ; sample state- 
ment, 131. 

Adelphi College, 99. 

Administration, see topics. 

Admission requirements, specific, 
preferable, 247; standard ex- 
aminations, 249 ; accrediting 
schools, 340; inquisitive wan- 
derer welcome, 350. 

Advisers for students, begin 
too late, 90 ; students assigned at 
Smith, 118; survey questions, 
266. 

Akron, Municipal University, 351. 

Alabama survey, 2. 

Alumni, start survey, 2; Harvard, 
8; Texas, 8; Wisconsin, 8; dis- 
satisfaction, 16; help on ques- 
tions, 29; visitation by, 57; de- 
ferred payments, 77; should be 
listed, 102 ; promote business ef- 
ficiency, 109, 132; Harvard, in- 
spect instruction, 114; keeping in 
touch with, 215; on digressions, 
226; on cultural vs. practical 
subjects, 235. 

American School, no. 

Anon3mious complaints, used, 19, 

54. 
Appeals, see Publicity ; amateurish, 

88. 
Art, see Beauty making. 
Assemblies, student, 194. 
Association of American Colleges, 

3, 129, 152. 
Association of College Professors, 
^ 2, 64, 73- 
Association of Southern Colleges, 

28s, 287. 
Athletics, see Outside activities. 



3S7 



Audit, outside, in by-laws, 53; of 
operation reports, 70; by busi- 
ness agent, 71 ; of non -financial 
statements, 108, 127. 

Averages, misleading, 6; like a 
plague, 39; for research, not. 
enough, 158; ad absurdum, 281, 
296, 311. 

Ayers, Dr. L. P., 7. 



Bagley, Professor W. C, i. 

Balance sheet, see Accounts. 

Beauty making and building, 72; 
fine arts taught, 72; violations, 
73; superintendent needed, 73; 
in town, college responsibility, 
340. 

Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, 136. 

Beloit College, 197. 

Benezet, Superintendent L. P., 354. 

Berg, David E., 276-280. 

Birge, Dean E. A., 304. 

Board, daily reports, 190 ; see Cost 
of living. 

Bookkeeping methods, 132 ff.; 
minimum essentials, 132-134. 

Boston University, 207. 

Bowdoin College, 113, 264. 

Brittain, Dr. H. L., 21, 256. 

Bryce, James, 308, 313, 317. 

Bryn Mawr, 32, 207. 

Budget, of president's time, 81; 
minimum essentials, 1 18-124; 
faculty, 119; study needed, 120; 
will not prevent deficits, 121 ; for 
research, 158; library, 245; stu- 
dent activities, 198. 

Bumpus, President H. C, 87, 93. 

Burton, Professor H. E., 3. 

Burton, President M. L., 10, 46, 
153, 249. 

Business manager, 47; testing effi- 
ciency, 106; questions, ic^; in 
city schools, no; responsible to 
whom, no. 



388 



Index 



Butler, President N. M., 158, 160, 

174, 2ZZ, 238, 244, 254, 327. 
By-laws, surveyed, 5.2. 

Calendar, of problems needing at- 
tention, 61, 168, 181. 

California, University, 116. 

Carleton College, 129, 130, 131, 138, 
205, 218. 

Carnegie Foundation, 3, 6, 7, 66, 
92, 95, 97» 126, 129, 133, 173, 218, 
241, 242, 247, 249, 285, 354. 

Carnegie Institute of Technology, 
105, 204. 

Catalog, placing tested, 102; best 
points circulated, 112; on course 
of study, 218; earmarks of efifi- 
ciency, 220 ; no index to instruc- 
tional efficiency, 255. 

Cattell, J. McKeen, 66, 

Central boards of education, sur- 
veys, 3, 30; make official visitors 
necessary, 59; to supervise col- 
leges, 353. 

Chicago Normal College, i. 

Chicago, University, 28, 54, 100, 
116, 216, 223, 316. 

Cincinnati, University, 115, 226, 
228, 230, 283, 339, 349. 

Citizenship, courses, 229; of col- 
leges, 334. 

City schools, self-surveymg, 2; 
superintendents asked to help 
college surveys, 20. 

Civic agencies, asked for sugges- 
tions, 20; in college towns, 334. 

Classes, see Small classes. 

Classics, tests, 22,^, 238, 301 ff. 

Classroom instruction, observed, 2, 
21; help during visit, 22; coop- 
erative visiting, 31 ; trustees, 43 ; 
ability in, vs. scholarship, 58 ; in- 
competent, investigated, 59; de- 
partments correlated, 113; new 
instructors, departmental confer- 
ences, 183; survey essentials, 
251 ff. ; observation of, 253; ob- 
jections to observing, 254; ques- 
tions, 258 ; score card, 261 ; per- 
sonalities portrayed, 276-280. 

Clearing house, see Reference and 
research. 



Colgate University, 115. 
College Entrance Board, 315. 
Colorado survey, 3. 
Columbia University, i, 74, 75, 113, 
158, 160, 174, 209, 248, 249, 252, 

254, 345, 347, 349. 

Commission government, 163. 

Communities, college, analyzed, 91, 
100 ; books loaned to country 
schools, 114; advice as to roads, 
115; help in city building, 116; 
Oberlin proposals, 116; estab- 
lishing municipal reference bu- 
reau, 117; cooperation with civic 
agency, 117; helping civil service 
commission, 117; teaching city 
employees, 117; 173 studies, 62 
booklets, 9,000 news letters 
weekly, 118; home town condi- 
tions, 334 ff. 

Comparative surveys, 35. 

Complaint boxes, useful, 20; in by- 
laws, 54 ; followed up by visitors, 
61; invited by president, 89; in 
assemblies, 195. 

Conditions needing correction, 
listed, 18; separately reported, 
22, Z2. 

Confidences, invited, 19. 

Connecticut surveys, 2; instruc- 
tion score card, 261. 

Conventions, for trustees, 44; for 
faculty, report results annually, 
57; benefits from, 184. 

Cooke, Morris L., 49. 

Cooperation in surveys, i ; twelve 
steps, 19 ff. ; time for, should be 
gfuaranteed, 26; illustrations, 28; 
ten suggestions, 29; university 
with public schools, 58. 

Cooperative courses, 228, 243. 

Cornell University, 199. 

Correlation, 226. 

Cost, reason for surveys, 16; re- 
duced by student studies, 32 ; re- 
ported annually, classified, 93, 
95; in budget, 118 ff. ; of re- 
search, 329. 

Cost of living, for students, 185; 
student budgets, 187, 194; maxi- 
mum set, 192 ; college towns, 339. 

Course of study, field work in 



Index 



389 



law, 58; without foreign lan- 
guage, 113; legal aid and prac- 
tice teaching, 116; survey ques- 
tions, 204 ff. ; seven essentials, 
222; cooperative, 228; citizen- 
ship, 229 ; cultural, 2^3 ; fitted to 
local needs, 236; graduate work, 
240; professional, 241; in ab- 
sentia, 244; testing individual 
courses, 246; segregation of 
sexes, 320. 

Courtis tests, 281. 

Cowling, President D. J., 129, 130, 
131, 138, 218. 

Credits, by courses, 93. 

Criticisms of colleges, by colleges, 
12; method of meeting, 102; 
frank admission pays, 103. 

Cultural subjects, tests, 22,3. 

Dabney, President C. W., 334. 

Dartmouth, studies 23 colleges, 3. 

Dayton Bureau of Research, 350. 

Deans, see topics; tests, 82-86. 

Degrees, honorary, questions, 62; 
factor in selecting president, 84. 

Department, heads, see topics; re- 
view questions, 30; review find- 
ings, 31; vacations, 67; tests, 
82-86; government, 167 ; writ- 
ten records, 182; interdepart- 
mental conferences, 182; catalog, 
220; supervision, 263; precep- 
torial system, 264. 

Discipline, probation, 59; clogs 
faculty meetings, 90. 

Dormitories, cost statements, 34; 
pay 3% interest, 114; coopera- 
tive housekeeping, 116; costs, 
185, 189; questions, 186, 188. 

Drexel Institute, 81. 

Economics department, surveyed 
by education department, 3. 

Efficient College, The, 4. 

Electives, questions, 237. 

Elimination, reported annually, 93 ; 
cumulative record needed, 104, 
106 ; questions, 105 ; needs study, 
243 ; student failure analysis, 
283; point system, 319. 



Employment bureau, 208; weak- 
nesses, 209, 228 ; minimum essen- 
tials, 211. 

Endowments, 75; affect tuition 
rates, 76; handling of, unimag- 
inative, 78; not treated as cur- 
rent gifts, 126; should be ex- 
plained, 128; foundation influ- 
ence, 354. 

Engineering, see Cooperative. 

English, survey tests, 297 ff.; in 
non-English classes, 313. 

Entrance requirements, 247. 

Estimates, see Budget. 

Evans, President Silas, 162,. 197, 
323. 

Evanston schools, 337. 

Extension courses, for town offi- 
cers, 115; for farmers, 115; for 
penitentiary inmates, 116; mov- 
able schools for farmers, 116; 
night courses in engineering and 
architecture, 116; by students, 
117; Reed College, 117; in ped- 
iatrics, 118; program, 345 ff.; by 
correspondence, 346; questions, 
347. 

Extra-curricular activities, 185 ff. 

Faculty, see topics; and trustees, 
42 ff. ; promises to, written, 48; 
out-of-college service recorded, 
48 ; protected by written records, 
50; represented by deans, 86; 
first meeting, 89-91; suggests 
business changes, iii; adminis- 
tration, 114; exchange lectures, 
114; government undemocratic, 
162, 166; defects of meetings, 
168; full-time secretary, 171; in- 
vestigations, defects, 172; sal- 
aries, 172 ff.; attitude toward 
student activities, 199; research, 
incompetent supervision, 293. 

Failures, studied, causes reported, 
94, 283. 

Fee, college, 114. 

Fichandler, Alexander, 22. 

Field training, see Learning via 
doing. 

Financial statements, must be 
readable, 127, 129; minimum es- 



390 



Index 



sentials, 127-129; four kinds of 
receipts, 129; keeping separate 
non-college funds, 130; sample 
headings, 131. 

First-year students, questions 
about teaching, 56 ; taught by de- 
partment heads, 114, 324- 

Foreign language, faculty com- 
mittee, 113; survey questions, 
301 ff. ; case for, 304. 

Foster, President W. L., 117.- 

Foundations, see names; limita- 
tions, 7; would strip trustees of 
duties, 42; effect upon colleges, 
354; 3 questions for surveyors, 
357 ; constructive program, 359. 

Fraternity, see Extra-curricular. 

Gary school survey, 233. 
General Education Board, 7, 80, 
126, 127, 130, 132, 232, 233, 242, 

354. ^ . 

German, see Foreign. 

Godfrey, President H. B., 81. 

Grading, analyzed, 235; new the- 
ories, 309; questions, 310; weak- 
nesses, 310; written work, 312 ff. 

Graduate work, supervision, 177; 
Ph.D. thesis defects, 179; an- 
nouncements mislead, 240 ; insin- 
cerities, 285; by small colleges, 
285 ; testing thesis, 291. 

Graphs, aid administrators, 40, 81, 
139, 141; to show non-use of 
space, 139 ff. 

Greek, tests, 233, 238. 

Hadley, President A. T., 325, 326. 
Hagerty, Dean J. E., 11, 26, 27. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 326. 
Harper, President W. R., 100. 
Hartridge, Miss Evelyn B., 334. 
Harvard, 3, 8, 75, I05, Ii4, 226, 

235, 248. , r. A r 

Health protection, 201 ft.; defects 
corrected, 212 ; college town con- 
ditions, 340. 

Henmon, Professor y. A. C, 330. 

High school, experience in, helpful 
to presidents, 82 ; practice teach- 
ing, 116; colleges study, 342. 



High spots, listed, 18; separately, 
23, 32 ; year's, reported, 57 ; from 
other colleges, 113 ff.; catalog, 
219. 

High Spots in New York Schools, 
262. 

Hill, Professor William, 312. 

Hine, Charles D., 2^1^ 

Hughes, President R.*M., 81, 151, 
217. 

Hughes, Superintendent C. C, 206. 

Hurt, President H. W., 105. 

Idaho, central board surveys, 3; 

questions helpful, 30, 121. 
Illinois, University, i, 64, 266. 
Illinois Wesleyan, 113. 
In absentia courses, 115, 244, 285, 

295» 346. 
Indiana, normal survey, 3. 
Institute for Public Service, 81, 

125, 253, 257. . 

Instructional efficiency, see topics; 
criticized by colleges, 12; aided 
by student surveying, 32; inves- 
tigated by trustees, 55, 56; fac- 
tor in selecting instructors, 58; 
pensions affect, 67; vocations 
affect, 68; tested by president, 
88; a sidetracked interest, 90; 
meeting criticism, 102; and out- 
side activities, 116; affected by 
buildings, 138; and time sched- 
ules, 144, 150; aided by class 
records, 154; influenced by re- 
search cult, 157; and tenure, 
172 ; interdepartmental confer- 
ences, 182; educational conven- 
tions, 183 ; courses of study, 222 ; 
correlation of subjects, 224; 
competition, 239; method and 
accomplishment, 250-333. 

Iowa survey, 3, 5, 20, 30, 143, 158, 
177, 224, 292, 346. 



Jones, Dean E. E., 32, 251, 260, 

284, 337, 338. 
Jones, Dean F. S., 319. 
Junior college, 321. 



Kahn, Otto H., 72. 



Index 



391 



Kansas survey, 3, 30, 114, 115, 121, 

312. 
Keppel, Dean F. P., 252, 283. 
King, President H. C, 116, 326. 

Lafayette University, 283. 

Latin, tests, 233, 238. 

Learning via doing, on survey ma- 
terial, 31 ; use of students on sur- 
veys, doubted, 32; studying col- 
lege problems, 32; in law, 58; 
in office work, 104, 109; practice 
teaching in rural schools, 114; 
summer employment to Harvard 
students, 114; work in public 
schools, 115; training for social 
service, 115; commercial prac- 
tice, lis; livestock judging and 
project clubs, 115; in manufac- 
turing, 115; in college heating 
plant, 115 ; in local power plant, 
115; run moonlight schools and 
free lecture system, 116; credit 
for farming, 116; legal aid bu- 
reau, 116; practice teaching in 
high school, ij6; summer camp 
for engineers, 116; home man- 
agement, 117; field training for 
public service, 117; on college 
bookkeeping, 134 ; by instructors, 
234; in Wisconsin, 293 ff. ; at 
Northwestern, 33? ; teachers not 
required to teach, 342. 

Lecture, overdone, 316. 

Lee, Ivy L., 100. 

Legislatures, order surveys, 2, 16; 
reports published, 27; budget es- 
sentials, I 18-124. 

Library, 244 ff. 

Lough, Professor J. E., 336. 

Lowell, President A. L., 3. 

Low spots, see items. 

Mc Andrew, William, 281. 
McLennan, Professor S. F., 330. 
McKendree College, 105. 
McVey, President F. L., 81, 323. 
Mandel, Edward, 22. 
Maryland survey, 3, 7, 233, 
Master's degree, see Graduate. 
Matscheck, Walter, 179. 
Mezes, President S., 47. 



Miami University, 3, 81, 106, 114, 

^135, 190, 191, 199, 217, 319. 

Michigan, University, 44, 117. 

Milwaukee Normal, no. 

Minimum essentials, of colleges, 4 ; 
for college managers, 82; in 
testing courses, 247; use of, 280 
ff. ; listed, 281. 

Minneapolis Committee of Munici- 
pal Research, 3. 

Minnesota, University, 3, 10, 48, 
116, 121, 275. 

Minutes, in by-laws, 53 ; surveyed, 
56, 90; visitors should read, 61; 
waste faculty time, 90; of bud- 
get deliberations, 122. 

Missouri survey, 3. 

Missouri, University, 117. 

Modern Philanthropy, 96, 98. 

Montana, University, 116. 

Mount Holyoke, 248, 249, 334. 

Municipal Reference Bureau, 117. 

Municipal universities, 339, 349. 

National Education Association, 5. 

Nearing, Professor Scott, 235. 

Nebraska, University, 117. 

Needs, cumulative lists, 78; not 
listed, first of year, 90. 

New York City College, 203, 345, 
347, 349. 

New York City, school survey, 26; 
cooperative teaching, 229. 

New York University, 115, 345. 

Nichols, ex-President, 63, 325. 

Normal schools, surveyed, i, 3. 

North Carolina University, 116, 
117. 

North Dakota, survey, 3, 5; uni- 
versity, 115, 346.' 

Northwestern University, 32^ 165, 
251, 284, 337- 

Oberlin, 20, 28, 116. 

Office essentials, 103. 

Ohio, state-wide survey, I, 21 ; uni- 
versity, I, 3, II, 116, 117. 

Oregon University, survey, 3, 5. 

Organization, questions for trus- 
tees, 46; confusion of responsi- 
bility avoided, 47; statistical, 



392 



Index 



minimum essentials, 103 ; of fac- 
ulty simplified, 114. 

O'Shea, Professor M. V., 316. 

Out-of-state students, 193. 

Outside activities of faculty, 48; 
of students, see Extra-curricu- 
lar. 

Pearse, President C. G., no. 

Pease, Lynn S., 58. 

Pennsylvania, University, 48, 209, 
218, 312, 317, 346. 

Pensions, 66 ff. 

Percentages, computed for trus- 
tees, 55 ; of freshmen, taught by 
older men, 56 ; in president's re- 
port, 92; eligible to college, 99; 
working week, 146. 

Personalities, eliminate from re- 
ports, 17; questions, when em- 
ploying instructors, 58; when 
giving honorary degrees, 62; 
president's, 83 ; student prepared- 
ness, 113; president qualications, 
185; chart, 208, 257; analyzed 
for employment, 213; specific 
tests, 252; measurable, 274 ff. ; 
y2 portraits, 276. 

Ph.D., see Graduate ; thesis, inade- 
quate supervison, 178; typical 
deficiencies, 179. 

Philipp, Governor E. L., 353. 

Phillips-Andover, 233. 

Physical instruction, 59, 204 ff. 

Political science, practical studies, 
335. 

Pratt Institute, 48, 204, 283, 312. 

Preceptorial system, 113. 

President, see topics; sets pace in 
efficiency, 81 ; qualifications, 82 ; 
working year, 87; efficiency 
tests, 88; gives courses, 225. 

Preston, Josephine C, 356. 

Princeton, 75, 248, 264. 

Pritchett, President H. S., 92, 97, 
285. 

Private colleges, surveyed, 2, 3; 
limitations of foundations, 7; 
will have outsiders survey, 14; 
will make suggestions, 30; con- 
done high costs, 193. 

Professional courses, 241. 



Psychology, via doing, 336. 

Public-health courses, 116. 

Public service, field training, 117; 
see Learning via doing. 

Publicity, of surveys, disapproved, 
27 ; urged, 17, 27 ; in small doses, 
26, 351 ; inefficiency criticized, 59; 
budget, 124 ; of instructors' time, 
146; vacancies advertised, 176; 
stress health needs, 205 ; catalog, 
219 ff. ; misrepresents Ph.D's., 
285, 286. 

Purchasing methods, 134, 135. 

Purdue University, 147. 

Rankin, Professor A. W., 167. 

Rankin, Janet R., 179. 

Ranking, of colleges, 36. 

Recommendations, separated, 22; 
based on facts, 2^ ; reported an- 
nually, 57. 

Record Aids in College Manage- 
ment, 81, 121, 125, 199, 201, 209, 
247, 252, 267, 275. 

Records, see topics ; are indexes of 
efficiency, 124; defects of, 155; 
written, for departments, 182; 
cumulative, of health, 204. 

Reed College, 117, 195^ 334. ^ 

Reference and research, division 
of, 111-118; enlisting faculty, 
112. 

Regents, see Trustees. 

Repairs, actuarial leases for, yZ- 

Reports, see topics; are surveys, 
8; improving, 10; survey, should 
contain, 16; small doses better, 
26 ; reasons for and against pub- 
lishing, 27 ; suggest questions for 
surveys, 30; to trustees, 42; es- 
sentials, in by-laws, 53, 54; re- 
flect research, 57 ; visitors should 
read, 61 ; president's, essentials, 
83 ff.; best points circulated, 
112; printed early, 113; by 
graphs, 118; for alumni, 215; by 
foundations, 358. 

Research, a qualification for presi- 
dent, 84; faculty committee, 113; 
and teaching efficiency, 113; rec- 
ords, 156; control and cost, 157 
ff. ; supervision tests, 177; ef- 



Index 



393 



feet upon teacher, 325 ff. ; survey- 
questions, 327; five elements, 
328; cost of, 329; 21 questions, 
331. . 

Revolving funds kept separate, 
130, 136; alternatives, 137; ad- 
vanced, not given, 137. 

Rhode Island State College, 312. 

Ripon College, 162, 197, 323. 

Rockefeller Foundation, 242, 354. 

Root, Elihu, 244. 

Rounds, C. R., 300, 301. 

Russell Sage Foundation, 7. 



Salaries, written agreements, 47; 
and vacations, 67; levels, 75; 
budget questions, 119; survey es- 
sentials, 175; averages mislead- 
ing, 177. 

Scapegoats, educational, 41; none 
on business side, 79. 

Schneider, Dean H. G., 208, 283. 

Scholarship, of president, 83, 84; 
honor point system, 113-116, 318; 
reading for honors, 117. 

School and Society, 66. 

Science, 66. 

Scientific management, 109. 

Secondary, see High. 

Segregation of sexes, 320. 

Self-government, 196 ff.; limita- 
tions, 197. 

Self-survey, see topics. 

Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training 
Schools, 38, 242. 

Sex hygiene courses, 117. 

Sharp, Professor F. C, 330. 

Sheffield Scientific School, 115. 

Small classes reduced, 114; num- 
ber published, 118, 156; capital 
cost, 157. 

Smith College, 10, 32, 113, 118, 
121, 122, 139, 188, 248, 249. 

Space, non-use of, charted, 36 ; an- 
nually reported, 94; no proprie- 
torship allovi^ed, T17; surveys 
needed, 138-141 ; efficiency, argu- 
ments against, 140; three ways 
of reporting, 141 ; United States 
bureau's formula, 143; small 
classes, 157. | 



Specialization, 318. 

State department of education, 
surveying local schools, 2 ; Wis- 
consin surveys university and 
normals, 3; not asked to survey 
colleges, 6; central boards, sur- 
veying, 30, 352. 

Statistics, see topics. 

Stearns, Alfred K, 2SS' 

Stowe, President A. M., 195. 

Student, outside activities, advis- 
ers, 58; rushing controlled, 59; 
publications censored, 59; ques- 
tions, 199; see Ex-curricular. 

Student-clock-hour, 151 ff. 

Supervised study, 206, 284. 

Supervision, of instruction, 262 ; of 
advisers, 269. 

Taxpayers demand surveys', 2, 16; 
will be generous if informed, 
76. 

Teachers College, Columbia, 326, 
342. 

Teaching, see Instruction. 

Teaching load, Smith analyzes, 
113; Wisconsin figures, 145; 
Purdue, 147; tests, 150 ff. 

Technique, survey, 37 ff. ; factor- 
ing questions, 38; working pa- 
pers, clearly marked, 39; cau- 
tions, 49 ; see topics. 

Tentative, see Budget. 

Tenure, questions, 63; and sal- 
aries, 172. 

Texas, University survey, 8. 

Time budget, see Budget and 
Teaching load 

Toledo University, 146, 158, 171, 

^ 195, 339, 349. 

Tolstoy, Count, 75. 

Transfers, see Budgets. 

Trottman, Regent James F., 46. 

Trustees, will start surveys, i, 16; 
use survey currently, 20; rela- 
tion to president and faculty, 42 
ff. ; foundations would strip of 
duties, 42; number in United 
States, 44; conventions for, 44; 
responsible for deficiencies, 46; 
survey by-laws, 52; minutes, 53; 
investigations for, 54 ff.; and 



394 



Index 



visitors, 58; audit, inadequate, 
70; need lists of needs, 78; and 
deans, 86; budget making, 118 ff. 

Tufts College, 22, 87, 93, nS. 

Tuition rates, 76. 

Unit costs, supplies, board, 135. 

United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion, as surveyor, 4; limitations, 
5 ; will list surveys, 30 ; free pub- 
lications, 246; extension work, 
345. 

Vacations, 67 fif. 

Van Hise, President C. R., 326. 

Vassar, 36, 141, 144, 209, 248, 249, 
334. 

Veblen, T. B., 185. 

Vermont, surveyed, 7. 

Visitors, official, 57 fif.; results in 
Wisconsin, 58; dangers, 59; is- 
sue student questionnaire, 60; 
time to report, 60. 

Vocational guidance, 206; instruc- 
tion, 212. 

Voice, important, 83; speech-de- 
fect clinic, 116. 

Washington, surveys, 2, 3, 5. 

Way, Professor R. B., I97- 

Wendell, Professor Barrett, 254. 

Winship, Dr. A. E., 281. 

Woodbridge, Dean E. G., 249, 349. 

Wellesley College, 248, 249. 

Wesleyan Universit3% 115. 

Williams College, 346. 

Wisconsin, normal schools sur- 
veyed, i; state department sur- 
veying, 2; university surveyed, 
3; university alumni visit, 8; 
university president on survey- 
ors, 17; confidences invited, 20; 



faculty asked questions, 21 ; edu- 
cation department visited classes, 
21 ; prompt building, 22 ; state 
budget law, 25; university sur- 
vey report in sections, 26; 
questions included Oberlin and 
Chicago, 28; twelve general 
questions, 28; central board, 
questions helpful, 30; university 
survey avoided comparative 
studies, 34; tabulation card, 39; 
by-laws surveyed, 52; visitor's 
results, 58; prohibits Socialist 
address, 75; high spots, 113; 
working week, 144; central 
board asks time, 146; rebate for 
research, 157, 160; research 
cost, 158; full-time faculty sec- 
retary, 171; student costs, 194; 
student activities, 201 ; voca- 
tional conferences, 207 ; employ- 
ment bureau, 209 ; catalog, 221 ; 
coordinating lectures, 225; cul- 
tural vs. practical courses, 232; 
normal-school study, 242; spe- 
cific efficiency tests, 252; univer- 
sity classroom visits, 256, 270 
f^. ; learning by doing, 294 fif. ; 
English, 300; foreign languages, 
304; and questions, 306; spe- 
cific grading, 312; student com- 
ments, 316; point system, 319; 
research survey, 330; credits in 
absentia work, 346. 

Working week, see Teaching load. 

Written agreements, 48, 89, 164. 

Yale, 32, 7^, 78, 113, 188, 192, 204, 

215, 248, 251, 319, 324. 
Yocum, Professor A. D., 218, 220, 

221, 222, 225, 229, 234, 235, 238, 

243, 244, 245, 247. 



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I The first five volumes in the | 

I School Efficiency Monographs | 

= >— ^■— s 

1 ji series of constructive educational hooks of bandy size 1 

i covering all educational activities 1 



I I. THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL | 

I By William McAndrew | 

I Contains matter not usually found' in reports and treats things in a | 

I big way. Its suggestions are in the highest degree practical. lUus- I 

i trated. 6o cents | 

I a. STANDARDS IN ENGLISH | 

i By John J. Mahoney i 

I A course of study in oral and written composition for elementary i 

I schools. Also literature outline, picture list, model letter forms, list | 

I of errors, etc. go cents 1 

I 3. AN EXPERIMENT IN THE FUNDAMENTALS | 

i By Cyrus D. Mead | 

I Giving the results of tests made in the Cincinnati schools with two | 

I kinds of practice material. The first contribution to the literature of | 

I scientific practice work. Illustrated. 60 cents | 

I 4. NEWSBOY SERVICE | 

i By Anna Y. Reed | 

I Introduction by George Elliott Howard. Prefetory note by W. | 

I Carson Ryan, Jr. A detailed study of a social-economic problem I 

= very close to schools. Treats of educational, social, economic, 1 

I physical, moral, vocational, and avocational aspects. Of value to I 

1 those interested in the workings of the Smith-Hughes Act. go cents § 

I 5. EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES in the PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 

i By Meta L. Anderson 1 

I A thoroughly readable and instructive book with much of value I 

I presented in print for the first time. Introduction by Henry H. I 

I Goddard. In press | 

I Other volumes in active preparation , 1 

1 Descriptive folder on the Series nvill be sent on request | 

I WORLD BOOK COMPANY | 

I YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK | 

I 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago | 
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i i^obernment Handbooks; i 

1 i 

I Edited by David P. Barrows and Thomas H. Reed | 

I GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS | 

I OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE | 

I By Fritz-Konrad Kruger | 

i Doktor der Staatswissenschaften {^Tiibingen^j m.a. (^Nebraska) I 

I This book is the result of years of careful study, and in its i 

I preparation a mass of German first- and second-hand sources I 

I has been used, which has not been used heretofore by Ger- | 

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I questions not systematically treated in any previous book I 

I written in EngHsh; e. g., population and territory in their | 

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I systematic monograph in English dealing with the politics of | 

I Germany. There is a critical bibliography, covering thirty- | 

I three pages, at the end of the book; two colored charts and | 

I eight colored half-tones. | 

I Cloth, xii + 340 pages. Price, $1.20 I 



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The Government Handbooks are planned for the double pur- 
pose of supplying college classes in government with handy, 
authoritative texts and of furnishing the public with convenient 
volumes for reading and reference. The plan is to cover the 
important governments not only of Europe but of other parts of 
the world and certain colonial dependencies. Each volume 
will be written by a specialist in the history and institutions of 
the country concerned, and from first-hand knowledge of actual 
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